KAWS painting, 2 other works purchased for High Museum by collectors

The High Museum of Art will mount a major exhibit in February by Brian Donnelly, a New York artist who goes by the name KAWS. But KAWS' graffiti and pop culture-inspired art-making already has caught the eye of some prominent High patrons.

At the High's third annual Collectors Evening, a $500-a-plate benefit at the W Atlanta Midtown on Friday night aimed at adding key selections to the Midtown museum’s 12,000-plus-piece permanent collection, KAWS' painting “Down Time” received the most votes from the 287 guests, becoming the first work selected for purchase.

Marcel Wanders’ “Crochet Chair” was picked in the second round; and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s experimental photograph “Lightning Fields” was designated as the third and final purchase.

KAWS' piece should be a nice fit for the show by the artist opening Feb. 18 at the High: “KAWS: Down Time.” It will include a 22-foot-high, site-specific mural he will paint in the Wieland Pavilion’s Margaretta Taylor Lobby. "Companion," a 16-foot-tall, 5,500-pound sculpture by the Brooklyn-based artist, already is on view on Sifly Piazza outside the High's entrance.

Here are descriptions of the three purchased works provided by the museum:

• Proposed by the modern and contemporary art department, "Down Time" is an acrylic on canvas by KAWS. KAWS is a pseudonym of Brian Donnelly, who was first recognized in the early 1990s in New York City in connection with graffiti art and quickly became associated with ambitious murals that subverted public advertisements. "Down Time" is an expression used to describe personal or recreational time spent away from daily cares and responsibilities. Here it also suggests a word play that refers to the gravitational downward pull of the painting's imagery. The face of KAWSBOB—one of KAWS' cast of cartoonish characters—is barely discernible through the disorderly tumbling of rectangular forms. KAWS has recently had solo exhibitions at the Aldrich Museum, Galerie Perrotin in Paris and Galeria Javier Lopez in Madrid. He has an upcoming solo exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

• Marcel Wanders' "Crochet Chair" proposed for acquisition by the High's decorative arts and design collection, blurs the boundaries between craft and design. A playful twist on the traditional lace doily, it's a modern, airy and surprisingly weight-bearing form made from a simple hand-crocheted fiber. Wanders transforms the conventional openwork textile from a decorative yet protective shield of furnishings into the form of the chair itself. Using epoxy resin and a mold to create a hard fabric skin or shell, this prototype was the genesis of a limited-edition series of 20. One of the first designers involved with the innovative Dutch design collective Droog and co-founder of Moooi, Wanders is an important international contemporary designer whose works continue to delight and inspire.