KAWSKAWS GONE KAWS BFF Companions (set of 2 works)2017-2019
2017-2019
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2017-2019
- Dimensions:Height: 14.25 in (36.2 cm)Width: 7 in (17.78 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:NEW YORK, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU354310009102
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 PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Basquiat Bearbrick 400% set of 2 works (Warhol Basquiat BE@RBRICK 400%)By after Jean-Michel BasquiatLocated in NEW YORK, NYJean-Michel Basquiat & Andy Warhol Bearbrick Vinyl Figures: Set of two (400%): A unique, timeless collectible trademarked & licensed by the estates of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy W...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Basquiat Bearbrick 400% (set of 2 Basquiat BE@RBRICK)By after Jean-Michel BasquiatLocated in NEW YORK, NYJean-Michel Basquiat Bearbrick Vinyl Figures (400% & 100%): Set of 2: A unique Basquiat Bearbrick statue set trademarked & licensed by the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. The partner...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Basquiat Bearbrick 400% (set of 2 Basquiat BE@RBRICK)By after Jean-Michel BasquiatLocated in NEW YORK, NYJean-Michel Basquiat 400% Bearbrick Vinyl Figures Set of 2: A unique Basquiat Bearbrick statue set trademarked & licensed by the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. The partnered collect...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS Companion 2016: set of 4 works (KAWS companion set)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Companion 2016: set of 4 works: KAWS Brown full body and flayed; & KAWS Red Blush full body & flayed, 2016 - each, new and sealed in their original packaging. These iconic KAWS figures...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS TIME OFF blue (KAWS Time Off companion)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS TIME OFF Blue: A highly decorative KAWS Companion featuring KAWS’ much popularized BFF Companion in a resting position. This brightly colored, highl...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS Flayed Companion 2016 (KAWS brown flayed companion 2016)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Brown Flayed Companion 2016. New and sealed in its original packaging. Published by Medicom Japan in conjunction with the exhibition, KAWS: Wher...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Hair BoxBy Richard ArtschwagerLocated in New York, NY"Hair Box," 1990 (for Parkett 23) Paint on rubberized hair, wood backing, 10 x 15 x 5” (25,4 x 38 x 13 cm), Ed. 100/XX, signed and numbered A material common...Category
1990s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsRubber, Paint
- Italy 1980 Bronze Sculpture Cavallo e Cavaliere Mastrorocco Horse and RiderLocated in Brescia, ITThis is an interesting multiple artwork signed by the author Vito Mastrorocco, an Italian talented young artist living in Italy in 1980. It was made in cast lost wax. This is a mult...Category
1980s Post-Modern Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsBronze
- Italy 1980 Bruno Chersicla Volavola Black Painted Metal Sculpture ButterflyBy Bruno ChersiclaLocated in Brescia, ITThis sculpture is a multiple 1 piece of 50 realized in 1980 by the well known artist Bruno Chersicla. All the pieces are numbered and signed by the artist and completed by the Certif...Category
Late 20th Century Abstract Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsMetal
- "I HOPE..." 2021, lamp by Chiharu Shiota, Design, Contemporary Art, Japanese ArtBy Chiharu ShiotaLocated in Zug, CHChiharu Shiota "I HOPE..." 2021 stainless steel, heat-resistant satin glass, transparent Din A5 sheets Edition of 100 + 20 APs 120 x 120 cm 28 x printed artworks by the artist 65 x...Category
2010s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Photogravure
- Untitled: Modernist Abstract Figure/CreatureLocated in New York, NYEllen Key-Oberg (1905-1989), "Untitled: Modernist Abstract Figure/Creature", Abstract/ Modern Lithograph on Paper signed in Pencil, 21 x 17, Mid 20th Century Colors: Black and White...Category
Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- KAWS, Hours, Nights, Weeks, Months - Limited Edition Plate, Street ArtBy KAWSLocated in Hamburg, DEKAWS (American, b. 1974) Hours, Nights, Weeks, Months, 2023 Medium: Porcelain plate (fine bone china) Dimensions: 10 1/2 in diameter 26.7 cm diameter Edition of 250: Printed signatu...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsPorcelain
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.