KAWSKubrick 100% and Bus Stop 22002
2002
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2002
- Dimensions:Height: 8.5 in (21.59 cm)Width: 8.5 in (21.59 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Washington , DC, DC
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU171329787882
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.
- Superflat Museum Set of 10By Takashi MurakamiLocated in Washington , DC, DCThis Superflat Museum LA Edition Set of 10 were released in 2004 and features Takashi Murakami's most well known characters. A similar set has sold at auctio...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic
- Chomper Bearbrick 1000%By KAWSLocated in Washington , DC, DCThe Be@rbrick is a figure produced by the Japanese company Medicom. With this figure, they have invited different artists and brands to stylize the figure to their own liking. Brand ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic
- Blush Flayed CompanionBy KAWSLocated in Washington , DC, DCBlush Flayed CompanionCategory
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic
- 400% BearbrickBy Jackson PollockLocated in Washington , DC, DCAfter Jackson Pollock Fully authorized by the artist's estate, Pollock Krasner House, this 400% Bearbrick resumes the pattern of a painting of his dripping period with the entire...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic
- Mono Flayed CompanionBy KAWSLocated in Washington , DC, DCMono Flayed CompanionCategory
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic
- The Hours Spin SkullBy Damien HirstLocated in Washington , DC, DCExecuted in 2009, this work is from an edition of 210 unique colour variants. household gloss on plastic skull in a unique colour combination, with ‘The Hours...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic
- NYPD InterceptorBy Drew LeshkoLocated in Philadelphia, PAOriginal NYPD interceptor sculpture made of archival paper, dry pigments, enamel, wood, clay, wire, plastic, and inkjet print by Drew Leshko measuring 16"h x 16"w x 3"d framed, as sh...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsEnamel, Wire
- "Wire Songs", Contemporary, Mixed Media, Sculpture, Plied Wire, Aluminum, MetalBy John GarrettLocated in St. Louis, MOJohn Garrett was raised in southern New Mexico by parents who were both educators. They instilled in him an appreciation for the handmade with their collections of Native American a...Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsMetal, Wire
- SedilsassoBy Piero GilardiLocated in Roma, ITThis artwork is a composition of three stones made by Piero Gilardi in 1969. The Certificate of Authenticity is provided by Archivio Piero Gilardi n. 1969.01 dated 17/12/2017. This s...Category
1960s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsPolyurethane
- COPPER BIRD LITTLE "IN MEE THE FLAME"By Lesley DillLocated in New York, NYcopper, wire and organza on metal armature "In Mee the Flame" - John DonneCategory
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsMetal, Copper, Wire
- New York Times with Alladin Sane / Unique Wall Sculpture / David BowieBy Paul RoussoLocated in Greenwich, CTOriginal Work of Contemporary art by Paul Rousso Titled: "NY Times with Alladin Sane" Depicts pages from the Arts section of the New York Times with David...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsAcrylic Polymer, Polystyrene
- Take It or Leave ItBy William King (b.1925)Located in Boca Raton, FLTake It Or leave It is a life size sculpture constructed of mylar over an aluminum frame. Sculptor William King is widely renowned for his signature flattened and stilt-legged figu...Category
20th Century Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsMylar, Mixed Media
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.