Film Review: When Worlds Collide
(l. to r.) Min Sanchez, Kenny Scharf and Oliver Sanchez in 1985, posing in front of Scharf’s artwork in Bahia, Brazil as seen in Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, directed by Malia Scharf and Max Basch. A Greenwich Entertainment release. Photo credit: Tereza Scharf
Written by: Belle McIntyre
KENNY SCHARF: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (2020) DIR. MALIA SCHARF AND MAX BASCH
This immersion into the emergence of the exuberant, phantasmagorical world of the downtown art scene which blossomed in the creative cauldron of the crumbling and decrepit lower east side in the 80’s is a period that never gets boring. The amount of energy generated among the grafitti artists and muralists all over New York City as they found free surfaces to express themselves on walls of abandoned buildings, subways and virtually any available blank space is both joyful, playful and anarchic. The most prolific and iconic members of this movement were Kenny Scharf, a student at SVA from California, who became roommate and best friend of Keith Haring, and pal of Jean-Michel Basquiet. And all three of them worshipped at the altar of Andy Warhol. In the beginning, the motivation was purely self-expression for its own sake.
Kenny Scharf’s 1985 painting “Ratfink Boner Thunk” as seen in Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, directed by Malia Scharf and Max Basch. A Greenwich Entertainment release. Image courtesy of Kenny Scharf.
As the work became commodified as art, and dealers began buying and selling it, there began to be a shift and some of the spontaneity was lost and replaced by pressure to compete for recognition and the trappings of success. Scharf who painted everything within his reach and embraced all manner of trash, particularly loved plastic and anything with a pop image, which he would incorporate into sculptural pieces. There was plenty of unabashed referencing of sources like Marvel Comics, the Flintstones and the Jetsons. Scharf coined the term Jetsonism. He experienced career insecurity when Haring’s star went spectacularly on the rise, and worked that much harder to compete. His work was shown with Tony Shafrazi and the Fun Gallery. As the club scene became the art scene and drugs and AIDS pervaded everything, this group began losing friends and lovers. Haring and Basquiat both died way too young, which was a huge blow to Scharf. Perhaps because he never cared for drugs and was heterosexual, he survived.
Kenny Scharf with his daughter, Zena, and wife, Tereza, in 1984, posing in front of Scharf’s artwork in Bahia, Brazil as seen in Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, directed by Malia Scharf and Max Basch. A Greenwich Entertainment release. Photo credit: Oliver Sanchez
He met Tereza in Brazil and almost immediately got married and had a daughter Zena. The art world was moving in new directions which led to some soul searching and leaving New York for Miami for financial reasons. The one constant seems to be the need to express himself with paint. The man is prolific and his work has morphed. He is represented in dozens of major museums and has reestablished a way to practice his art in a way which he believes in, by commissions for large scale murals which are visible to the public free of charge. He has become a vocal advocate for making art available to everyone. He comes off as a really good guy. This affectionate film, co-directed by his daughter, also includes interviews with art world friends and associates including Yoko Ono, Dennis Hopper, Jeffrey Deitch, Irving Blum, Peter Brant, and Marilyn Minter. It is something of a time capsule through Kenny Scharf’s lens. Definitely worth seeing.
Kenny Scharf painting in 1982 as seen in Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, directed by Malia Scharf and Max Basch. A Greenwich Entertainment release. Image courtesy of Kenny Scharf.
(Available at Cinema Village or streaming via Angelika Brand Only)
