Library: Kenny Scharf

Library

This library selection is inspired by Kenny Scharf’s exhibition at The Brant Foundation Art Study Center in New York, NY (November 2024– February 2025).

About The Brant Foundation Library

The Brant Foundation’s library program was established in 2009 to facilitate the appreciation and understanding of contemporary art and to advance our mission of promoting arts education. As both a museum and art study center, the Foundation’s library serves as a crucial resource for students, scholars, and educators by providing access to a unique collection of hard-to-find materials. After noticing the difficulties of obtaining contemporary art publications, typically as a result of rarity or expense, the Foundation was inspired to make efforts to broaden their holdings and increase accessibility to the public.

Kenny Scharf: In Absence of Myth

by G. James Daichendt (Author), Ann Magnuson (Foreword). December 13, 2016

“Kenny Scharf’s life story is the equivalent of riding a roller coaster. Raised in Southern California, this king of cool eventually packed his bags for New York City, where he became an integral part of an underground East Village art scene that changed the world. His graffiti-inspired paintings, wild performances, and sculptures earned him an international reputation for making art accessible. This meteoric rise involved parties, drugs, sex, and of course rock ‘n’ roll. Yet there were many unexpected twists and turns, from marriage and family to tragedy and depression. With the advent of AIDS and shifting trends in the art world, Kenny fell from grace and was even mistakenly thought to have passed away along with fellow artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Recovering in Florida, raising a family, and eventually returning to California and New York, Kenny Scharf’s sporadic, adventurous, and chaotic lifestyle is unimaginable, humbling, yet ultimately redeeming. Patched together like one of his silk screens, this official biography provides a front seat to the glamour, gossip, and the story of an artist who ‘made it’ once, and his struggle to come back.”

Kenny Scharf

Essays by Barry Blinderman, Gregory Bowen, Bill McBride, Ann Magnuson, and Robert Farris Thompson

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide at Illinois State University (January 14 – February 23, 1997).

Normal, IL: University Galleries, Illinois State University, 1998. First Printing. Wraps. 8 x 5.25 inches, stiff wraps, fine copy. 99 pp, illustrated in b/w.

Kenny Scharf: WOODZ ‘N THINGS

By Sophie McKinnon (editor), Chris Peterson (copy editor), Kenny Scharf (artist)
TOTAH GALLERY
2024

Published on the occasion of the exhibition WOODZ ‘N THINGZ at TOTAH , New York, April 21nd – June 25th, 2024.

https://www.davidtotah.com/exhibitions

Kenny Scharf: blue blood

By TOTAH (editor), Rachel Small (copy editor), Kenny Scharf (artist)
TOTAH GALLERY
2021

Published on the occasion of the exhibition blue blood at TOTAH , New York, May 2nd – July 28th, 2019.