Overview

A landmark survey of a Pop Surrealist icon, on the occasion of his first museum show in China Spanning decades of Scharf’s work, Emotional examines the artist’s playful yet meticulous exploration of emotions through a vivid iconography. It features more than 120 multi-disciplinary artworks, including Kenny Scharf’s Beach Club, an installation that transports everyone into the artist’s California beachside utopia. Published on the occasion of Scharf’s largest solo exhibition to date, Kenny Scharf: Emotional showcases Kenny Scharf’s pioneering street art aesthetic and distinctive visual language. Featuring exaggerated faces and expressive forms, his work connects ancient pictographic languages and modern emoji culture. Long before emojis emerged to fill the emotional gap in digital communication, Scharf developed a visual language that captured the complexities of humanity’s relationship with expression and feeling. As the curator Shai Baitel says, “Kenny Scharf is a giant whose art and influence cannot be overstated. He is one of the most distinctive artists today, having started alongside Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.” Edited by Shai Baitel the book features paintings, sculptures and other objects organized into groups of emotions: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness and Awe. An original glimpse into emotional expression through art history, focusing on Scharf’s approach to this part of human nature.

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9788857254739

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Shai Baitel is an arts executive and creative director with extensive experience in the fields of arts, culture, and business. He serves as the Artistic Director of the Modern Art Museum (MAM) Shanghai for which he created, among others, the exhibitions and edited the catalogues Marina Abramovic: Transforming Energy (Skira, 2024), David Hockney: Paper Trails (Skira, 2024) and Bob Dylan: Retrospectrum (2019).

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