The artist Brian Donnelly, better known as KAWS, is a pretty divisive figure in the art world. But his pop culture-infused artworks keep finding their audience. The September issue of Art In America made a good case for the continued appeal of KAWS. The latest admirer of this was the famous curator Germano Celant. Celant is all set to curate KAWS at Garage Gallery, Qatar.
Germano Celant is a name everyone in the art world recognizes. It was Celant who coined the term ‘Arte Povera’ in 1967, referring to the group of artists in Italy using everyday objects to create their art. Arte Povera soon became synonymous to the self-reflection of the post-WW2 Italian economy. Since then, Celant has cemented himself as the curator of world-renowned art. For 20 years he served the senior curator in Guggenheim Museum, New York. Since 1995 he has served as curator for Fondazione Prada and even served as main curator at 1997 Venice Biennale.
The history of KAWS and Celant might be quite recent, but interesting nonetheless. In 2017 KAWS lent some of the works he owned to Fondazione Prada, to be curated by Celant. Earlier this year, another exhibition of work by KAWS was curated by Celant.
For KAWS, this year has been a fruitful one. In March, his 2005 work titled The KAWS Album was sold at a record price in the Sotheby’s sale at Hong Kong. Sold at $14.7 million, it utterly broke the artist’s previous record of $2.7 million (which too was set only a few months prior). Reports suggest that the artist is set for a career retrospective exhibition in Brooklyn Museum in 2021. But it wasn’t just sunshine for him this year. Just a few days ago there were protests regarding one of his work, a caricature of Chairman Mao Zedong that was to be sold in Hong Kong.