KAWSUntitled1999
1999
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:1999
- Dimensions:Height: 14.2 in (36.07 cm)Width: 10.2 in (25.91 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Washington , DC, DC
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU171329904272
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: Washington , DC, DC
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Untitled (Set of 2 from a Fleet of Buses)By Allen JonesLocated in Washington , DC, DCSet of 2. Sold framed. Very rare Artist Proof and Trial Proof from Jones' 'Fleet of Buses' series are amongst the greatest prints of his major 1960's Pop period. Only 20 prints in the regular edition, this one being a rare Trial Proof. Allen Jones’ firsts works are considered to be among those which launched British pop art. A display of several school buses...Category
1960s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper, Lithograph
- Flag 1 (Offset) signedBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Washington , DC, DCFlag 1 (Offset) signedCategory
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper, Lithograph
- Untitled (Pink Bendy)By KAWSLocated in Washington , DC, DCSold unframed. Designed by KAWS in 2003 as a sleeve insert printed on thick card for a rare Japan-only release vinyl album. A very collectible piece. This beautiful and rare ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- Revolutionary Muslim WomanBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Washington , DC, DCRevolutionary Muslim WomanCategory
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- OdysseyBy Ai WeiweiLocated in Washington , DC, DC"Odyssey", is a limited edition print by Chinese activist and artist Ai Weiwei. It depicts the global refugee condition in the style of a classic Greco-Roman frieze. Edition of 1000...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- Retrospect PosterBy Keith HaringLocated in Washington , DC, DCAfter Keith Haring poster. Features Keith Haring Estate seal on lower right of print.Category
1980s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- Lotus Pool - Contemporary, 21st Century, Lithograph, Limited Edition, ChineseBy Yue MinjunLocated in Zug, CHYue Minjun, Lotus Pool Lithograph in color on wove paper “BFK Rives” Edition of 130 120 x 80 cm (47.2 x 31.4 in) Stamped Signature, numbered in Roman numerals In mint condition, as a...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Sheep Herd - Contemporary, 21st Century, Lithograph, Limited Edition, ChineseBy Yue MinjunLocated in Zug, CHYue Minjun, Sheep Herd Lithograph Edition of 130 120 x 80 cm (47.2 x 31.5 in) Stamped Signature, numbered in Roman numerals In mint condition, as acquired...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Orange over GreenBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYFrame size: 43 1/2 x 31 3/4 inches Printer: Imprimerie Maeght, Levallois-Perret, France Publisher: Maeght Editeur, Paris Edition size: 75, plus proofs Signed and annotated in pencil,...Category
1960s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Leaf IVBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPortfolio: Twelve Leaves Printer and Publisher: Gemini, G.E.L., Los Angeles Edition size: 20, plus proofs Signed, titled, and numbered in pencil, lower right Catalogue Raisonné: Axso...Category
1970s Contemporary Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Blue over GreenBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYFrame size: 43 1/4 x 32 inches Printer: Imprimerie Maeght, Levallois-Perret, France Publisher: Maeght Editeur, Paris Edition size: 75, plus proofs Catalogue Raisonné: Axsom 26 Signe...Category
1960s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Face - Lithograph on Paper by Henry Maurice - 1970sLocated in Roma, ITFace is a modern artwork realized by Maurice Henry in 1970s. Mixed colored lithograph. Hand signed and numbered on the lower margin. Edition of 57/100...Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
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.