Art on Film | Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide

Put the art world in focus with Art on Film at SAM. Join us for award-winning documentaries, short films, and biopics that highlight some of our favorite artists, reveal untold histories, and explore what it takes to make it as an artist today. Each screening will include opportunities for discussion and connection among audience members.

Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide (2020)

Directed by Malia Scharf and Max Basch

Running Time: 77 minutes

Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide was made over 11 years and features interviews and rare archival footage with Kenny Scharf, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Ed Ruscha, Dennis Hopper, Yoko Ono, Kaws, Marilyn Minter, and Jeffrey Deitch. The documentary shows Scharf’s New York City arrival in the early 1980s where he quickly befriended Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. This trio, amongst the fervent creative bustle of a depressed downtown scene, would soon take the art world by storm. While Basquiat and Haring both died tragically young, Scharf lived through cataclysmic shifts in New York City and the art world. Despite set backs along the way, Scharf continuesto follow his particular high-tone, technicolor artistic vision while growing public and critical appreciation for his earlier work has cemented his place as a pop art icon.