Organised chronologically, the exhibition begins with a vitrine filled with sketchbooks and framed drawings of his graffiti tags. The show, curated by Eugenie Tsai, tracks the artist’s production from a freshly graduated student at the School of Visual Arts in New York, working as a graffiti artist, to his now secured status as artist-icon and mega-brand. Sure enough, a trip to the museum met my low expectations. That’s not just a tossed-off barb-the critic, artist, and collector Greg Allen unfavourably compared the artist’s work to Happy Meal toys in an article I wrote on KAWS last year. If not, well, what did anyone expect? Most art critics agree that the work of KAWS (Brian Donnelly) holds about as much nutritional value as a Happy Meal. Like assigning a food critic to review McDonald’s, if the show gets the thumbs-up, it’s of no consequence-legions of fans already exist, built through decades of production and brand partnerships with companies such as Nike, Uniqlo, Dior and MTV. After participating in several Clubhouse discussions on the death of art criticism, being sent out as a critic for my thoughts on the superstar artist’s retrospective of toys and paintings feels like the final nail in that coffin. The futility of reviewing KAWS’s What Party at the Brooklyn Museum holds a certain morbid appeal.
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