KAWS Poster Art 2008 (KAWS Kanye West 808s and Heartbreak)
View Similar Items
KAWSKAWS Poster Art 2008 (KAWS Kanye West 808s and Heartbreak)2008
2008
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2008
- Dimensions:Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:NEW YORK, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU35437924592
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.
- Rare Original 1980s Keith Haring Vinyl Record Art (Keith Haring Hiroshima)By Keith HaringLocated in NEW YORK, NYKeith Haring Hiroshima 1988: Rare 1988 7” Japanese vinyl record featuring original artwork by Keith Haring. Truly vibrant colors that make for stand-out wall art and unique vintage Keith Haring collectible. Rare and not to be passed upon. *1st Pressing 1988 (not a re-issue) Medium: Off-Set Lithograph on vinyl record cover and labels. Dimensions: 7 x 7 inches. Plate signed on lower right & dated 1988 by Haring Light signs of handling; otherwise good to very overall vintage condition. Includes the original record (very good condition). Haring off-set illustrations appearing throughout the exterior and interior covers and record labels. _ Keith Haring Album Art: a brief history: Whether collaborating with Grace Jones, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, regularly frequenting clubs like Paradise Garage alongside close friend Larry Levan, or sketching DJ robots, New York artist and activist Keith Haring’s work was deeply entwined with the music world lending his vision to sounds by everyone from David Bowie to Run DMC. Looking for something cool to complement this work? Please feel free to browse additional items like this from Jean Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Keith Haring & more on our 1stDibs gallery page. Related Categories Keith Haring prints. Keith Haring figurative. East Village art. Street art. 80s graffiti. Pop Art. Keith Haring animals.Category
1980s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsOffset, Lithograph
- Milton Glaser San Diego Jazz Festival 1983 (Milton Glaser posters)By Milton GlaserLocated in NEW YORK, NY1980s Milton Glaser Poster Art: San Diego Jazz Festival: Vintage original Milton Glaser poster c.1983. Designed by Milton Glaser on the occasion of the San Diego Jazz Festival, a Pacific Coast event depicted with a suit-and-sandal clad bear at dusk. Several favorite Glaserisms show up here: the swirling contours, the loose cross-hatching and the saxophone. Offset lithograph poster in colors. 24x36 inches. Very good overall vintage condition with the exception of perhaps some minor signs of handling. A suit-and-sandal bear heralds this Pacific Coast event with a serenade with a beautiful sunset. Several favorite Glaserisms show up here: the swirling contours, the loose cross-hatching and the sax. Literature: Milton Glaser Posters Legendary graphic designer, illustrator, and art director Milton Glaser created some of the most recognizable iconography in America today —including the iconic I ♥ N Y logo —and countless posters and ad campaigns. Glaser changed the face of commercial art in the 1960s and ’70s, breaking with the conventions of modernism and drawing inspiration from a wide variety of art-historical and pop-cultural sources, from Art Nouveau to comic illustration...Category
1980s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Offset
$340 Sale Price20% Off - Andy Warhol Most Wanted Men (Warhol John Joseph H., Jr. screen-print & catalog)By Andy WarholLocated in NEW YORK, NYAndy Warhol The Thirteen Most Wanted Men (Dossier No. 2357) screen-print & exhibition catalog: Scarce 1967 Warhol Sonnabend exhibition catalog which includes the sought-after Andy Wa...Category
1960s Pop Art More Art
MaterialsPaper, Lithograph, Offset, Screen
- Keith Haring 1985 announcement (Keith Haring Tony Shafarzi Leo Castelli)By Keith HaringLocated in NEW YORK, NYKeith Haring Tony Shafrazi/Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, 1985: Rare original 1980s Keith Haring announcement published on the occasion of: Keith Haring at Tony Shafrazi Gallery,...Category
1980s Pop Art Animal Prints
MaterialsOffset, Lithograph
- Keith Haring Tony Shafrazi 1982 (set of 4 printed works)By (after) Keith HaringLocated in NEW YORK, NYKeith Haring Tony Shafrazi 1982: set of 4 printed works: A set of four double-sided lithographic inserts from the seminal, spiral bound 1982 Keith Haring Tony...Category
1980s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Offset
- Keith Haring Safe Sex! (Vintage Keith Haring 1987)By Keith HaringLocated in NEW YORK, NYOriginal 1987 Keith Haring Safe Sex poster: Illustrated by Keith Haring in conjunction with his many Aids Awareness efforts. A historical vintage 1980s Keit...Category
1980s Pop Art Nude Prints
MaterialsOffset, Lithograph
$760 Sale Price30% Off
- TAKASHI MURAKAMI - MIYABI: KŌRIN Pop Art. Japanese Traditional FlowersBy Takashi MurakamiLocated in Madrid, MadridMIYABI: KŌRIN ( KŌRIN: COURTLY ELEGANCE 2020) Date of creation: 2020 Medium: Offset print with cold stamp and high gloss varnish on paper Edition number: 200/300 Size: 72 × 76,25 cm ...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsPaper, Varnish, Lithograph, Offset
- TAKASHI MURAKAMI - KORIN: TRANQUILITY Pop Art, Japanese Flowers Silver BlackBy Takashi MurakamiLocated in Madrid, MadridTakashi Murakami - KÕRIN: TRANQUILITY Date of creation: 2020 Medium: Offset lithograph with cold stamp and high gloss varnish on paper Edition number: 123/300 Size: 71 cm Ø Condition...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsPaper, Varnish, Lithograph, Offset
- TAKASHI MURAKAMI: DAZZLING CIRCUS Flowers & Skulls Japanese Pop Art RedBy Takashi MurakamiLocated in Madrid, MadridDAZZLING CIRCUS: EMBRACE PEACE AND DARKNESS WITHIN THY HEART Date of creation: 2016 Medium: Offset lithograph with silver Edition: 300 Size: 68.9 × 53 cm Condition: In mint condition...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsVarnish, Lithograph, Offset
- Four Hearts, 1971, after Jim DineBy Jim DineLocated in Fairfield, CTArtist: After Jim Dine (1935) Title: Four Hearts, exhibition poster Year: 1971 Medium: Lithograph on Arches paper Size: 30.75 x 22 inches Condition: Excellent Inscription: Signed by ...Category
1970s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Offset
$2,800 Sale Price20% Off - Larry Rivers Lithograph "For Adults Only I" Corseted Nude FemaleBy Larry RiversLocated in Detroit, MISALE ONE WEEK ONLY "For Adults Only I" is an exquisite offset lithograph print with colors of an alluring corseted and stockinged nude female in a confrontational pose filling the f...Category
1970s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Offset
$3,900 Sale Price40% Off - Early 1970s poster from Annely Juda Gallery, London (hand signed by Christo)By Christo and Jeanne-ClaudeLocated in New York, NYChristo and Jeanne-Claude Christo (Hand Signed by Christo), 1971 Offset lithograph Hand signed in pencil by the artist on the lower right front Published by Annely Juda Gallery, Lond...Category
1970s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsOffset, Lithograph
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.