Ups and Downs 3
View Similar Items
KAWSUps and Downs 32013
2013
About the Item
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’s oeuvre encompasses art toys, sculptures and colorful 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 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 prints, sculptures and mixed media works on 1stDibs.
- Yaacov Agam Untitled Vertical OrchestrationBy Yaacov AgamLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Yaacov Agam Title: Untitled Portfolio: Vertical Orchestration Medium: Silkscreen Year: 1980s Edition: 23/54 Sheet Size: 29 5/8" x 8 3/4"...Category
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Untitled, from Vertical OrchestrationBy Yaacov AgamLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Yaacov Agam Title: Untitled Portfolio: Vertical Orchestration Medium: Silkscreen Year: 1980s Edition: 27/54 Sheet Size: 29 5/8" x 8 3/4"...Category
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Untitled, from Vertical OrchestrationBy Yaacov AgamLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Yaacov Agam Title: Untitled Portfolio: Vertical Orchestration Medium: Silkscreen Year: 1980s Edition: A.P. Sheet Size: 29 5/8" x 8 3/4" ...Category
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Untitled, from Vertical OrchestrationBy Yaacov AgamLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Yaacov Agam Title: Untitled Portfolio: Vertical Orchestration Medium: Silkscreen Year: 1980s Edition: H.C. 12/18 Sheet Size: 29 5/8" x 8...Category
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Nicholas Krushenick Over the TopBy Nicholas KrushenickLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Nicholas Krushenick Title: Over the Top Medium: Silkscreen Year: 1980 Edition: 134/200 Sheet Size: 29" x 24" Frame Size: 33 1/2" x 28 1/4" Signed:...Category
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Mississippi, from The American DreamBy Robert IndianaLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Robert Indiana Title: Mississippi Portfolio: The American Dream Medium: Serigraph Date: 1997 Edition: 395 Sheet Size: 22" x 17" Image Size: 16 1/8" x 14" Signature: UnsignedCategory
1990s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- London Series II: Untitled (Blue/Cream) by Robert MotherwellBy Robert MotherwellLocated in Hinsdale, ILROBERT MOTHERWELL (1915-1991) London Series II: Untitled (Blue/Pale Blue) Screenprint in color on J.B. Green paper, c. 1971 Initialed and numbered by the artist, full ...Category
1970s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Miles from America by James RosenquistBy James RosenquistLocated in Hinsdale, ILJAMES ROSENQUIST Miles from America Screenprint in colors with pochoir on Arches paper, 1975 Signed and numbered and titled in pencil along lower edge Edition number AP 1/25 (asi...Category
1970s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Two Pears a Lemon and an Egg by Donald SultanBy Donald SultanLocated in Hinsdale, ILDONALD SULTAN (b. 1951) Two Pears a Lemon and an Egg Screenprint in colors on Arches 88 paper, 1994 Sheet Size: 22” x 23”, full margins. Impression 67...Category
1990s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- "The Color of Mind and Muscle" by James RosenquistBy James RosenquistLocated in Hinsdale, ILJames Rosenquist (1933-2017) "Color of Mind and Muscle" Screenprint in colors on wove paper, 1996 31-1/2 x 25-3/4 inches (80 x 65.4 cm) (sheet) A.P. 7/10 edition of 30 Signed, numb...Category
1990s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Original "Lilies" by Donald SultanBy Donald SultanLocated in Hinsdale, ILDonald K. Sultan (b. 1951) "Lilies" Screenprint in colors on arches 88 wove paper, 1998 Sheet size 24 x 20 inches Ed. 47 of 70 Initialed, numbered, dated, and titled in pencil alo...Category
1990s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- PanoramaBy Osvaldo MariscottiLocated in New York, NY2021 Screenprint in colors, on Rives BFK paper Image/sheet: 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm) Edition of 100 Signed, dated and numbered in pencil, lower margin Unframed, mint conditionCategory
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
Price Upon Request
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.