KAWSUNTITLED (RUNNING SNOOPY)2020
2020
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2020
- Dimensions:Height: 9 in (22.86 cm)Width: 10 in (25.4 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Aventura, FL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU72538404042
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: Aventura, FL
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- SUPERMODEL 2By KAWSLocated in Aventura, FLScreen print in colors on Rives BFK wove paper. Hand signed, dated and numbered by the artist. Artwork size 29.2 x 21 inches. Custom framed as pictured. Frame size approx 34.5 x 2...Category
1990s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen, Paper
- DUMBOBy BanksyLocated in Aventura, FLScreen print & hand-finished watercolor on paper. Hand signed and numbered by the artist. Pest Control included. Banksy’s Dumbo is an extremely rare Ban...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen, Paper, Watercolor
- GLOVE X GOLDEN CROWN (WHITE)Located in Aventura, FL11 color screen print on 300 gsm somerset satin paper. Hand signed and numbered on front by the artist. Edition of 55. Frame size approx 35 x 28 inches. Artwork is in excellent co...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen, Paper
- PUP ART (PINK)By Mr. BrainwashLocated in Aventura, FLScreen print, hand-finished with stencil and spray paint on hand torn archival art paper. Hand signed and numbered on front, thumb print on verso by the artist. Edition of 50. Fra...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen, Paper
- THE RIGHT ONE, HAPPENS EVERYDAYBy FaileLocated in Aventura, FL20 color silkscreen on 310 gsm coventry rag paper with deckled edges. Hand-signed by the artist duo; numbered and stamp-dated on reverse Edition of 450. Frame size approx 31 x 27 ...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen, Paper
- DON'T SNAKE ME BROBy Ryan Travis ChristianLocated in Aventura, FL7 color hand-pulled screen print on Coventry rag 290 gsm paper. Hand signed and numbered by the artist. From the edition of 100. Frame size approx 26 x 34 inches. Artwork is in e...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen, Paper
- Phlegm - Customary Hats - Urban Graffiti Street ArtLocated in Asheville, NCCustomary Hats: Artists: Phlegm Year: 2020 Class: Art Print Released: 12/09/20 Run: 275 Technique: Etching Paper: Fabriano Rosaspina 280gsm Size: 7.874 X 12.992 Markings: ...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsEngraving, Black and White, Etching, Screen
- Shepard Fairey - Obey Giant - Henry Rollins Tour 2016-2017 - Street Art PrintBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Asheville, NCI've collaborated with Henry many times in the past and of course, I'm constantly in awe and impressed by him. Just as much as I love Henry's musical contributions, he is the hardest working guy I know who stays completely up on social and political issues. He uses his megaphone to talk about important things and is very entertaining and captivating when doing so. I'm honoured and excited to collaborate with him again for the Henry Rollins...Category
2010s Street Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Shepard Fairey - Obey Giant - Golden Future - Urban Graffiti Street Art PrintBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Asheville, NC"Golden Future is the next in the series of large format prints inspired by the paintings in the latest body of work featured in the Damaged exhibition. Already released were Ideal P...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Super Nurse (Super-Size Gold)By FAKELocated in Hollywood, FLArtist: FAKE Title: 'Super Nurse' Super Size Gold Size: 55.12 x 39.37 Inches (140x100cm) Medium: 6 Color Screen Print Edition: of 20 Year: 2020 Notes:...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Save StilettosBy FaileLocated in Hollywood, FLArtist: Faile Title: Save Stilettos Size: 39 x 27.5 in Medium: Silkscreen Edition: of 100 Year: 2016 Notes: Custom Framed 18 Color Silkscreen Ink on Paper Archival Coventry Rag 290gsm. Signed & Stamped, Faile 2010 "The prints where released in conjunction with the Bedtime Stories show featuring some of the new processes involved in the wood paintings. These are 18-color silkscreen prints on an archival Coventry Rag 290gsm, deckled edge paper. Based off 3 new images from the show. It was quite a journey to try and convey the wood block paintings...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Burmese MonkBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION: Shepard Fairey Burmese Monk 2009 Screenprint 24 x 18 in. Edition of 450 Pencil signed and numbered Condition: This work is in excel...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
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.