No Reply #6 2015

This is Kaws’ "No Reply #6," made with these amazing flat planes of colour that pop right out at you. I can imagine Kaws standing there, blocking in those shapes, thinking about colour relationships. He's using a hot pink, teal, and purple, with a nod to a cartoon style. I wonder what he was listening to? What kind of mood was he in? Was he trying to be cool? Was he annoyed? It's interesting how a simple gesture, like that big teal X, can feel so loaded. And then you have this vertical stripe, like a curtain coming down, dividing things up. Painters are always looking at each other, you know? We riff off each other's ideas. Like, I bet Kaws was looking at some hard-edge abstraction from the '60s, maybe Ellsworth Kelly, and thinking, "How can I bring this into my world?" It's this constant conversation across time. That’s what keeps the whole thing alive!