KAWSSigned KAWS ONE monograph (signed KAWS Tokyo 2001)2001
2001
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2001
- Dimensions:Height: 8.4 in (21.34 cm)Width: 6.3 in (16.01 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:NEW YORK, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU35437406762
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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 2 days of delivery.
- Basquiat Works on Paper CatalogBy after Jean-Michel BasquiatLocated in NEW YORK, NYBasquiat Réunion des Musées Nationaux exhibition catalog, 1997: A superbly composed & elaborate catalog of Basquiat drawings and works on paper published in 1997 by Réunion des Musées Nationaux, France. Features 85 beautifully illustrated color reproductions plus photos around the artist. Introduction by Dina Vierny and foreword by renowned Basquiat dealer, Enrico Navara. Soft cover. 9 x 11 inches. A fine impression in very good overall condition. Rare as such. Published by Réunion des Musées Nationaux (1997). Text by Bernard Blistène "The crown, the seal and the copyright - Notes on a black face soap". Biography and bibliography. (French-English) Jean-Michel Basquiat’s dramatic life and iconic paintings—which variously feature obsessive scribbling, enigmatic symbols and diagrams, and iconography including skulls, masks, and the artist’s trademark crown—make him one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. The self-taught painter embraced graffiti before committing to a studio practice. He found a mentor and friend in Andy Warhol, who helped the young artist navigate the 1980s New York art world. Across his oeuvre, Basquiat drew on his own Caribbean heritage; a convergence of African American, African, and Aztec cultural histories; classical themes; and pop cultural figures including athletes and musicians. The immediacy and intellectual depth of his paintings won him widespread acclaim both before and after his untimely death at the age of 27. Basquiat’s paintings now belong in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. In 2017, Basquiat’s Untitled (1982) notched $110.5 million at auction and became the most expensive artwork by an American artist to ever be sold. Related Categories: Basquiat ephemera. Basquiat Robert Miller gallery. Vintage Basquiat. Basquiat catalog...Category
1980s Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper
- Keith Haring Stedelijk Museum drawing & catalogue (signed Keith Haring drawing)By Keith HaringLocated in NEW YORK, NYKeith Haring at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 15th – 12th May, 1986: Signed Keith Haring Stedelijk Museum exhibition catalogue featuring a Keith Haring dancing ...Category
1980s Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsInk, Paper
- Keith Haring Art in Transit 1984 (Keith Haring Tseng Kwong Chi book)By (after) Keith HaringLocated in NEW YORK, NYKeith Haring 1984: Keith Haring, Art in Transit: Subway Drawings with Photos by Tseng Kwong Chi: This highly collectible & well preserved 1984 Keith Haring monograph examines them m...Category
1980s Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper
- Signed Julian Schnabel 'Tableaux Tati Les Plus Bas Prix' catalogBy Julian SchnabelLocated in NEW YORK, NYSigned Julian Schnabel 'Tableaux Tati Les Plus Bas Prix' catalog: Front cover is hand-signed (J.S.) and inscribed by Schnabel to the historic critic and downtown art scene fixture Edit Deak. Published on the occasion of Schnabel’s 1990 show at the Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris - the paintings from this series, painted on “Vichy” fabric, inspired by the Parisian department store Tati, are reproduced along with an excerpt of a dialogue from the Wim Wenders movie Paris Texas. Medium: Offset printed exhibition catalog. Dimensions: 11 x 8.25 inches. Good overall vintage condition with the exception of some minor signs of handling and scattered finger prints on reverse cover. Hand signed (initialed J.S) and inscribed on front cover from an edition of unknown. About the artist: Julian Schnabel is a painter and filmmaker known as an integral member of the American Neo-Expressionists along with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Eric Fischl. Schnabel’s application of paint on massive canvases, use of unconventional materials such as broken plates, and representation of human figure(s) are hallmarks of his most famous works. “My paintings take up room, they make a stand. People will always react to that,” he said of his work. “Some people get inspired, others get offended. But, that's good. I like that.” Born on October 26, 1951 in Brooklyn, NY, Schnabel participated in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in the late 1970s, after his public persona grew. The artist turned to feature-filmmaking in the 1990s with his film Basquiat (1996), an intimate fictionalized account of the life of his late friend. Schnabel went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for Before Night Falls (2000) at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Director Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for The Diving Bell...Category
1980s Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsOffset, Paper
- Jean-Michel Basquiat Works on Paper, Catalogue Raisonne, Galerie NavarraBy after Jean-Michel BasquiatLocated in NEW YORK, NYJean-Michel Basquiat: Works on Paper, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, 1999: A Catalogue Raisonne by Richard Marshall; 375 pages, published by Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, with appr...Category
1980s Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper
- Keith Haring Sacred Images in Secular Art (Whitney Museum Catalogue 1986)By (after) Keith HaringLocated in NEW YORK, NYSacred Images In Secular Art catalog by Whitney Museum of American Art, 1986: Catalog of an exhibition held at the Museum, May 1-July 13, 1986 featuring Keith Haring cover imagery. Twelve American artists including Brice Marden, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Mapplethorpe & Keith Haring were part of this exhibition featuring the use of sacred images in secular art. The catalogue essay briefly describes each of the works in the show. 9 x 6 inches; 18 pages; offset printed; 1986. Good overall vintage condition with the exception of some handwriting on verso. Unsigned form a scarce edition of unknown. Keith Haring rose to prominence in 1980s New York within the East Village art scene alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, and Jenny Holzer. He bridged the gap between the art world and the street, graffiting city subways and sidewalks before committing to a studio practice. Haring united the appeal of cartoons with the raw energy of Art Brut artists such as Jean DuBuffet as he developed a distinct pop-graffiti aesthetic that comprised energetic, boldly outlined figures against solid or patterned backdrops. His major themes included exploitation, subjugation, drug abuse, and the threat of nuclear holocaust; Haring boldly engaged with social issues, especially after receiving an AIDS diagnosis in 1987. Today, his work sells for seven figures at auction and has been the subject of solo shows at the Brooklyn Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Albertina Museum in Vienna, among other institutions. Related Categories Keith Haring religous. Keith Haring catalog...Category
1980s Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper
- Roy II.By Roy LichtensteinLocated in Slovak Republic, SKA Hahnemuehle Fine Art Print, attributed to Roy Lichtenstein. Editioned of 25.Category
Mid-20th Century Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, Color, Digital, Archival Pigment
- Roy IV.By Roy LichtensteinLocated in Slovak Republic, SKA Hahnemuehle Fine Art Print, attributed to Roy Lichtenstein. Editioned 25.Category
Mid-20th Century Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, Color, Archival Pigment, Digital Pigment
- Sexy Doughnut, Fast Food Contemporary Still Life on Yellow Background, GicléeBy Ryan RivadeneyraLocated in Barcelona, ES"Sexy Miami Futuristic Cocktail Lounge" is a series of photographs by Ryan Rivadeneyra inspired by the Art Deco colors of Miami that show beautiful objects and textures arranged meti...Category
2010s Pop Art Still-life Prints
MaterialsPhotographic Film, Archival Ink, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, G...
- Ices (Mustard Yellow), Bexhill-on-Sea - British Pop Art Color PhotographyBy Richard HeepsLocated in Cambridge, GBICES, by Richard Heeps, photographed at the British Seaside at the end of summer 2020. This artwork is about evoking memories of the simple joy of days by the beach. The mustard yell...Category
2010s Pop Art Color Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
- Vinyl Collection 21 Piece Multi-Color Installation - Pop Art Color PhotographyBy Heidler & HeepsLocated in Cambridge, GBHeidler & Heeps Vinyl Collection Twenty-One Piece Multi-Color Installation. Acclaimed contemporary photographers, Richard Heeps and Natasha Heidler have collaborated to make this bea...Category
2010s Pop Art Color Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
- Vinyl Collection Fifteen Piece B Side Installation - Pop Art Color PhotographyBy Heidler & HeepsLocated in Cambridge, GBHeidler & Heeps B Side Vinyl Collection Fifteen Piece Installation. Acclaimed contemporary photographers, Richard Heeps and Natasha Heidler have collaborated to make this beautifully...Category
2010s Pop Art Color Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
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.