URGE No. 4
View Similar Items
KAWSURGE No. 42020
2020
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2020
- Dimensions:Height: 17 in (43.18 cm)Width: 12.75 in (32.39 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Washington, DC
- Reference Number:Seller: URGE41stDibs: LU54438583962
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.
- Flowarh$ - II (E)By Mr. BrainwashLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Mr. Brainwash Title: Flowarh$ - II (E) Portfolio: Flowarh$ Medium: Silkscreen edition print on paper Date: 2021 Edition: PP 2/3 (aside from the edition of 55) Sheet Size: 24"...Category
2010s Street Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Flowarh$ - II (C)By Mr. BrainwashLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Mr. Brainwash Medium: Silkscreen edition print on paper Title: Flowarh$ - II (C) Year: 2021 Signed: Signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 55 Sheet Size: 24" x 24" Framed Siz...Category
2010s Street Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Work Well TogetherBy Mr. BrainwashLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Mr. Brainwash Title: Work Well Together Medium: Unique silkscreen on paper Date: 2023 Edition: One of a kind Frame Size: 29" x 36 1/2" Sheet Size: 22" x 30" Signature: Hand s...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen, Paper
- Marilyn Portrait (Blue)By Russell YoungLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Russell Young Medium: Hand-pulled acrylic and enamel silkscreen on paper Title: Marilyn Portrait (Blue) Signed: Signed and numbered Portfolio: Marilyn Portrait Year: 2014 Edi...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Visual PoeticsBy Donald SultanLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Donald Sultan Title: Visual Poetics Portfolio: Visual Poetics Medium: Screenprint Date: 1998 Edition: 170/395 Frame Size: 19 1/4" x 19 1/4" Sheet Size: 16 1/4" x 16 1/4" Sign...Category
1990s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Balloon GirlBy Mr. BrainwashLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Mr. Brainwash Title: Balloon Girl Medium: Unique silkscreen on paper Date: 2023 Edition: One of a kind Frame Size: 36 3/4" x 29 1/4" Sheet Size: 30" x 22" Signature: Hand sig...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
- Nola AP (Dark Orange to Light Orange Rain)By BanksyLocated in London, GB"Nola" Dark Orange to Light Orange Rain, AP. Screenprint on arches paper. Edition of 66 artist's proofs comprised of six different colour variants, published in 2008 by Pictures on...Category
Early 2000s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- GlassesBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION: Shepard Fairey Glasses 1997 Screenprint 24 x 18 in. Edition of 250 Pencil signed and numbered. Accompanied with COA by Gregg Shienbaum Fine Art Condition: T...Category
1990s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Chinese SoldiersBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION: Shepard Fairey Chinese Soldiers 2006 Screenprint 24 x 18 in. Edition of 300 Pencil signed and numbered; accompanied with COA by...Category
Early 2000s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Behind YouBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION: Shepard Fairey Behind You 2009 Screenprint 41x 29 in. Edition of 75 Pencil signed and numbered Accompanied with COA by Gregg Shienbaum Fine Art Condition: T...Category
Early 2000s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- You Should Know I KnowBy KAWSLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION KAWS You Should Know I Know 2015 Screenprint 37 1/2 x 32 in. Edition of 250 Pencil Signed and Numbered Accompanied with COA by Gregg Shienbaum Fine Art Condi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
Price Upon Request - Riot CopBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION: Shepard Fairey Riot Cop 2009 Screenprint 41x 29 in. Edition of 75 Pencil signed and numbered Accompanied with COA by Gregg Shienbaum ...Category
Early 2000s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
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.