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38 KENNY SCHARF Opulado Teeveona OPULADO TEEVEONA Kenny Scharf American Acrylic, jewels, toys on Sony Trinitron T.V. with plastic pedestat 4' 8" xI' 5" xI' 4" (142 x 43 x 4I em). Courtesy of the Tony Schafrazi Gallery, New York. Photograph by Ivan Dalkl Tana. Kenny Scharf grew up in the sixties in Southern California. He emerged as a graffiti artist in the East Village of New York in 1980. Scharfs signature for his graffiti was a drawing of George Jetson (of television cartoon fame) or Leroy-Bug. Some of his street graffiti works remain in the East Village today. Scharfs more recent work has been as a painter, aP.d r.• :. stomizer ;;b;e-.t s, In his newer work he has left the Jetsons and other recog- nizable cartoon characters behind and has concentrated on creating anthropomorphic shapes floating in space. Scharf uses traditional oil painting techniques and spray painting, combining the old and new painting techniques on the same canvas. Scharfs paintings often have images and titles that refer to nuclear war and environmental issues, although the images he uses seem to be almost cartoons of cartoons. His images defy categories. They are, perhaps, simplified versions that represent the people of our own time. In addition to paintings on canvas, Scharf creates room installations and customized objects. He has created custom- ized telephones, televisions and even a 1961 Cadillac. His customizing involves the addition of toys, jewels, acrylic pipe and pigments. He has made the mundane objects used in everyday lives come alive with whimsy and charm. There t.:ran edge to Scharfs work. He is, perhaps, pulling at our His work is of our dreamworld, to,uching on our fantasies, yet he uses references to the concrete past and to the present that bring us back into reality. In Opulado Teeveona, Kenny Scharf has customized a Sony Trinitron television. Notice that he has placed the television on a pedestal and that it is resting on several large books. In his customized television sculpture, Scharf may be suggesting to the viewer that the television deserves to be honored by being placed on a classical pedestal form and resting on large, refert:r• ,:e-type books. He Itfay also oe rieed to question the importance of television in our lives. Scharf has assembled a variety of toys, acrylic pipes and acrylic paint in this piece. Some of the recognizable forms are dinosaurs and small human figures, creating a prehistoric landscape on the top surface of the television. Scharf uses a limited palette, repeating the colors used to decorate the television in the stripes on the pedestal and on the toys. Schaifs other customized objects have included tele- phones and an automobile. In these pieces, Scharf embel- lishes common, mass-produced objects in a way that personalizes them and makes them unique. There is a whimsical feeling about his work, yet one also senses that there may be a serious message embedded in these pieces that is not a part of the immediate impression. · Textbooks · · - .- A WI: Ch. 6, p. 122, Art of the Present and Future; Cp. 12, p. 249, Found Object Assemblage: Full Round. All: Ch. 6, p. 122, Sculpture 1950- Present; Ch. 12, p. 250, Assemblage.
