If there may be one exhibition in New York Metropolis that I’d suggest everybody see earlier than it closes, it’s The Means I See It: Alternatives from the KAWS Assortment on the Drawing Middle. KAWS (born Brian Donnelly) is ubiquitous — my barbershop sells collectible figurines of his demented Mickey Mouse with X’d out eyes, as do outlets world wide. He’s the one artist whose works will be purchased by youngsters, multimillionaires, and folks getting their hair reduce. For these within the artwork world who don’t have a look at public sale gross sales, The KAWS ALBUM (2005) — a mash-up of characters from The Simpsons and the album art work for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Membership Band by The Beatles — offered in Hong Kong for $14.8 million.
I don’t care about his pedigree, although, as a result of KAWS buys artwork by the boatload. This exhibition options greater than 350 works on paper, plus work, sculptures, and furnishings, chosen from a group of 4,000 items. I’m not speaking about huge, shiny blue-chip artwork objects; KAWS buys drawings by artists of each stripe, from Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, and Ed Ruscha to Susan Te Kahurangi King, Helen Rae, and William A. Corridor, to sketchbooks by graffiti artists (Dondi, CRASH, and Rammellzee), which he started buying and selling his work for when he was a graffiti artist.
Lee Lozano, “no title” (1962), crayon on paper , 13.75 x 16.75 inches (35 x 42.5 cm); Assortment of KAWS (picture © The Property of Lee Lozano, courtesy Hauser & Wirth)
This breakdown of hierarchies goes effectively past that of any exhibition I’ve seen beforehand. The present contains drawings by the comedian artist Basil Wolverton, who had printed on his stationery, “Producer of preposterous pictures of peculiar people who prowl this perplexing planet”; the repetitive, claustrophobic work of Martín Ramírez, an impoverished laborer who was recognized with schizophrenia and institutionalized for a lot of his grownup life; and trend magazine-inspired drawings of Helen Rae, who was deaf and nonverbal. She started making drawings on the age of 52 on the First Avenue Gallery and Artwork Middle, an artwork studio designed particularly for adults with developmental disabilities.
KAWS describes the thread connecting these works collectively as “People making marks.” Properly, that appears true of practically everybody, however most of the artists within the artist’s assortment have been obsessive about mark making to the purpose that it overtook their lives. A number of made artwork with no ambition to exhibit or obtain any recompense. They did it as a result of they have been compelled to do it.
A well known assertion by Philip Guston, who credited it initially to John Cage, got here to my thoughts: “When you start working, everybody is in your studio — the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all your own ideas — all are there.” Whereas each artists appear haunted, it’s not clear who was within the room with Henry Darger or Nicole Appel, whose coloured pencil drawings of labels and printed matter are among the many many highlights of this extraordinary present. What we all know of their concepts is of their work, which, for all of its graphic readability, can really feel distant.
Set up view of The Means I See It: Alternatives from the KAWS Assortment at The Drawing Middle, New York (photograph Jason Schmidt)
This isn’t the case with the drawings of Jim Nutt, Peter Saul, Tomoo Gokita, Dana Schutz, Gladys Nilsson, H.C. Westermann, and Anton van Dalen, whose work combines humor and empathy. Who would have thought that Lee Lozano’s charcoal portraits would call to mind the drawings and prints of Käthe Kollwitz? Empathy is likely one of the issues separating them from the work of KAWS himself and artists within the present corresponding to George Rental. Whereas the latter two are graphically fluid, their artwork doesn’t emanate empathy towards their topics. I didn’t anticipate to contemplate the position empathy may play in these works, particularly when serious about the darkish humor of Westermann, however after spending a while with them, it turned inescapable. That is what infuses sure works with gravity, whereas its absence makes different works really feel empty.
Additionally on view is a big number of diaristic comedian strips by R. Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb, sketchbooks by taggers corresponding to Dondi (Donald Joseph White) and CRASH (John Matos), early pen and ink drawing of skeletons by Judith Linhares, and drawings populated by a mélange of characters from anime, manga, and Japanese monster films by Yuichiro Ukai. KAWS’s eclectic, discerning eye is dazzling. On the finish of this yr, I’m positive that The Means I See It is going to be on my high 10 listing of 2025’s finest artwork exhibitions.
Martin Ramírez, “Untitled (Horse and Rider)” (1954), gouache, coloured pencil, and graphite on paper, 33.13 x 23.94 inches (84 x 60.8 cm); Assortment of KAWS (picture © Property of Martín Ramírez, courtesy Ricco/Maresca Gallery)
PART, “Not Titled (Blackbook)” (1985), blended media, 8.5 x 5.75 inches (21.6 x 14.61 cm); Assortment of KAWS (photograph Farzad Owrang)
Gladys Nilsson, “Black Painting 4” (c. 1966–68), watercolor on paper, 11 x 10.25 inches (27.9 x 26 cm); Assortment of KAWS (picture courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York)
Set up view of works by Jane Dickson in The Means I See It: Alternatives from the KAWS Assortment at The Drawing Middle, New York (photograph Jason Schmidt)
Susan Te Kahurangi King, “Untitled (A30232)” (c. 1967), graphite, coloured pencil and ebony on discovered paper, 11 x 8.5 inches (31.5 x 25 cm); Assortment of KAWS (picture courtesy the Drawing Middle, New York)
Adolf Wölfli, “Genanttes Heimwesen, Probsten=Loch Blatt aus Heft N° 13” (1915), graphite and coloration pencil on newsprint, 28 1/2 x 39 3/8 inches (72.4 x 100 cm) (picture courtesy the Drawing Middle, New York)
Set up view of The Means I See It: Alternatives from the KAWS Assortment at The Drawing Middle, New York, with 4 untitled ballpoint pen drawings by Eugene Von Bruenchenhein within the middle (photograph Jason Schmidt)
R. Crumb, “Untitled” (2015), ink and correction fluid on paper, 12.63 x 9.63 inches (∼32.1 x 24.5 cm); Assortment of KAWS (photograph Farzad Owrang)
Set up view of works by Lee Quiñones in The Means I See It: Alternatives from the KAWS Assortment at The Drawing Middle, New York (photograph Jason Schmidt)
The Means I See It: Alternatives from the KAWS Assortment continues on the Drawing Middle (35 Wooster Avenue, Soho, Manhattan) via January 19. The exhibition was curated by KAWS.