Far Far Down 2018

Kaws made this "Far Far Down" painting and the first thing that strikes you is its vibrant palette and those decisive, graphic lines. I can imagine Kaws in the studio, maybe moving around the canvas, making bold decisions on color and form. I wonder if he's listening to music, or if he prefers total silence. Does he step back and squint to see the whole thing, or is he just in there, close to the surface, wrestling with each shape and color as it emerges? The slickness of the surface is interesting, and the way those drips are depicted. Each of these motifs feels like a gesture, but it's been refined, almost flattened. You can see it in the tradition of Pop Art but also something else, a different kind of figuration. Artists are always feeding off each other, aren’t they? It's a conversation, a game of telephone across generations. This painting is not just a thing in itself, but a contribution to a larger dialogue that we are all a part of.