KAWSUps and Downs2013
2013
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2013
- Dimensions:Height: 35 in (88.9 cm)Width: 23 in (58.42 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU118524854481
KAWS
In the beginning, Brian Donnelly was just a kid from Jersey City, New Jersey, who got into the graffiti thing. KAWS was his tag, chosen simply because he liked the way it looked. Today, KAWS creates all kinds of art — there are KAWS figures and toys, sculptures and colorful drawings, paintings and prints that appropriate pop phenomena like the Smurfs, the Simpsons and SpongeBob SquarePants.
In the late 1990s, the artist, a 1996 graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts, was making a living as an illustrator for the animation studio Jumbo Pictures. Like young Hansel and Gretel with their trail of crumbs, KAWS would mark the morning route to his downtown Manhattan office with “subvertising,” “interrupting” fashion advertisements by adding his colorful character Bendy, its sinuous length sliding playfully around the likes of a Calvin Klein perfume bottle or supermodel Christy Turlington.
These creations gained a following, to the point where work posted in the morning would disappear by lunchtime. Even in those early days, KAWS was hot on the resale market.
“When I was doing graffiti,” he once explained, “it meant nothing to me to make paintings if I wasn’t reaching people.”
Instead of seeking entrée to the elite New York art world (which, frankly, wasn’t looking for a street artist anyway), KAWS moved to Japan, where a flourishing youth culture welcomed visionaries like him.
In 1999, he partnered with Bounty Hunter, a Japanese toy and streetwear brand, to release his first toy. Companion — an eight-inch-tall vinyl reimagining of Mickey Mouse, with a skull-and-crossbones head and trademark XX eyes — debuted with a limited run of 500. It sold out quickly.
Companion was the first of more than 130 toy designs, which came to include such characters as Chum, Blitz, Be@rbrick, BFF and Milo, each immediately recognizable as KAWS figures by their XX eyes. Fans have proved insatiable. In 2017, MoMA’s online store announced the availability of a limited supply of KAWS Companion figures; as avid collectors logged on to stake their claim, the website crashed — multiple times.
Companion is the most visible of the KAWS posse, appearing over the past decade in new postures and combinations in monumental KAWS statues and other works. These include Along the Way (2013), an 18-foot-tall wooden sculpture of two Companions leaning on each other for support; Together (2016), two Companions in a friendly embrace, which debuted during an exhibition of KAWS’s work at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, in Texas; and KAWS:HOLIDAY (2018), a 92-foot-long inflatable Companion floating on its back in Seoul’s Seokchon Lake. The sculptures were re-created as toys, blurring the lines between art and commerce.
KAWS’s visual language may be drawn from cartoons, but his work doesn’t necessarily evoke childlike joy.
“My figures are not always reflecting the idealistic cartoon view that I grew up on,” he explains in the catalogue for the Fort Worth exhibition. “Companion is more real in dealing with contemporary human circumstances . . . . I think when I’m making work it also often mirrors what’s going on with me at that time.”
KAWS's résumé reads like a record of major 21st-century pop-culture moments. It includes his work with streetwear brands like A Bathing Ape and Supreme; his design for the cover of Kanye West’s 2008 album, 808s & Heartbreak; and his collaboration with designer Kim Jones on the Dior Homme Spring/Summer 2019 collection, Jones’s debut as the fashion brand’s creative director.
Learn how to spot a fake KAWS art toy, and browse authentic KAWS figures, prints, sculptures and mixed media works on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Pop Shop II: one plate (L. pp. 96-97)By Keith HaringLocated in New York, NY1988 Screenprint in colors, on wove paper, with full margins 12 x 15 in. (30.5 x 38.1 cm) Edition of 200, HC Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil, recto FramedCategory
1980s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
- Grey RibbonBy Alex KatzLocated in New York, NY1990 Screenprint in colors, on Arches paper Sheet: 27 1/2 x 35 9/10 in. (69.9 x 91.2 cm) Edition of 150 + 30AP Signed and numbered in pencil, lower margin FramedCategory
1990s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
- Fireworks for President ClintonBy James RosenquistLocated in New York, NY5-color screenprint Sheet: 28 x 28 in. (71.1 x 71.1 cm) Edition of 75 Signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil Published by Gemini G.E.L., Los AngelesCategory
1990s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Ups and DownsBy KAWSLocated in New York, NY2013 The complete set of 10 screenprints in colors Sheet: 35 x 23 inches, each Edition of 100 Each signed, dated and numbered in pencil Contained in original portfolio boxCategory
2010s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- The NewsBy KAWSLocated in New York, NY2018 The complete set of 9 screenprints in colors Sheet: 24 x 24 in., each Edition of 100 Each sheet signed, dated and numbered in pencilCategory
2010s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Landscape Pot with PlantBy Jonas WoodLocated in New York, NY2017 Screenprint in colors on Somerset tub sized Satin Enhanced White paper Sheet: 39 2/5 x 29 1/2 inches Edition of 100 Signed, dated and numbered in pencil Unframed, mint conditionCategory
2010s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- With all My Flowering Heart Skateboard Triptych, 3 Limited Edition Skate DecksBy Yayoi KusamaLocated in New York, NYYayoi Kusama With All My Flowering Heart (Triptych), 2014 Set of Three (3) Separate Limited Edition numbered skate decks on 7-ply Canadian maple wood 31 × 8 × 2/5 inches (each) Hand ...Category
2010s Pop Art Mixed Media
MaterialsWood, Mixed Media, Permanent Marker, Screen
- Furungle (Blue)By Kenny ScharfLocated in Boca Raton, FLColorful, cartoonish faces and imagined creatures populate Kenny Scharf's fantastical murals, paintings, sculptures, and installations.Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- 1969-71 Abstract Minimalist Color Silkscreen Print Charles Hinman On The BoweryBy Charles HinmanLocated in Surfside, FLCharles Hinman On the Bowery, 1969 - 1971 silkscreen on Schoeller's Parole Paper, edition of 100 + 20 A.P. 25.5 x 25.5 inches, signed, numbered 21/100 Screenprint in color on wove paper Hand signed, published by Edition Domberger, Bonlanden, West Germany (with their blindstamp) Provenance: Collection of Tom Levine On the Bowery, 1971. The portfolio consists of nine screenprints in colors (one with mylar collage), on wove paper, by representative artists of the Pop Art period. Cy Twombly, Robert Ryman, Will Insley, Robert Indiana, Les Levine, John Willenbecher...Category
1960s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen, Lithograph
- Abstract Minimalist Color Silkscreen Print Richard Smith On The Bowery Pop ArtBy Richard SmithLocated in Surfside, FLRichard Smith On the Bowery, 1969 - 1971 silkscreen on Schoeller's Parole Paper, edition of 100 + 20 A.P. 25.5 x 25.5 inches, signed, numbered 21/100 Screenprint in color on wove paper Hand signed, published by Edition Domberger, Bonlanden, West Germany (with their blindstamp) Provenance: Collection of Tom Levine On the Bowery, 1971. The portfolio consists of nine screenprints in colors (one with mylar collage), on wove paper, by representative artists of the Pop Art period. Cy Twombly, Robert Ryman, Will Insley, Robert Indiana, Les Levine, John Willenbecher...Category
1960s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen
- Abstract Minimalist Color Silkscreen Print John Willenbecher The Bowery Pop ArtLocated in Surfside, FLJohn Willenbecher On the Bowery, 1969 - 1971 silkscreen on Schoeller's Parole Paper, edition of 100 + 20 A.P. 25.5 x 25.5 inches, signed, numbered 2...Category
1960s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen
- Abstract Minimalist Color Silkscreen Print Will Insley On The Bowery Pop ArtLocated in Surfside, FLWill Insley On the Bowery, 1969 - 1971 silkscreen on Schoeller's Parole Paper, edition of 100 + 20 A.P. 25.5 x 25.5 inches, signed, numbered 21/100 Screenprint in color on wove paper Hand signed, published by Edition Domberger, Bonlanden, West Germany (with their blindstamp) Provenance: Collection of Tom Levine On the Bowery, 1971. The portfolio consists of nine screenprints in colors (one with mylar collage), on wove paper, by representative artists of the Pop Art period. Cy Twombly, Robert Ryman, Will Insley, Robert Indiana, Les Levine, John Willenbecher...Category
1960s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
How to Spot a Fake KAWS Figure
KAWS art toys have developed an avid audience in recent decades, and as in any robust collectible market, counterfeiters have followed the mania. Of course, you don’t have to worry about that on 1stDibs, where all our sellers are highly vetted.
KAWS Is Having a Major Effect on Popular Culture, Whether on the Street or in Museums
From graffiti tagger to hypebeast obsession to auction hero — we chart the artist’s rise and his widening influence.