KAWSKAWS - Clean Slate - Black Version - brand new2018
2018
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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Dallas, TX
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- KAWS - Companion - Black, 2017 - Painted Cast VinylBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXThis is a brand new, in its original packaged, never open. Perfect condition. KAWS's cartoonish style—including his best-known characters with X-ed out eyes—has its roots in his ea...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS - Take Figure - Black Version _BFF CompanionBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXThis is a brand new piece in perfect condition. Several months after releasing the KAWS Share Figure in February, the artist released his long anticipated KAWS Take Figure. The fig...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS - Gone - Brown Version - collectible PopArtBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXKAWS Gone- Brown version New on its original packaging. Medium: Vinyl & Cast ResinCategory
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS - Companion Blush (Flayed), 2017 - Painted Cast VinylBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXThis is a brand new, in its original packaged, never open. Perfect condition. KAWS's cartoonish style—including his best-known characters with X-ed out eyes—has its roots in his ea...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS - FAMILY Figures - Brown version - collectible Pop ArtBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXKAWS - FAMILY Figures - Brown version New on its original packaging. Medium: Vinyl & Cast ResinCategory
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS - FAMILY Figures - Black version - collectible Pop ArtBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXKAWS - FAMILY Figures - Black version New on its original packaging. Medium: Vinyl & Cast ResinCategory
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Futura 2000 'Johnny' vinyl art figure (Futura art toy mindstyle)By FuturaLocated in NEW YORK, NY'Johnny' by Futura 2000: The ‘Johnny’ vinyl art figure from NYC graffiti legend Futura is inspired by a classic 80s horror film. The 10-inch figure features a stylized rendition of h...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS COMPANION 2020 (KAWS black companion)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS 2020 Companion (Black): KAWS COMPANION 2020 was created by KAWS to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his signature figure, Companion — and as cultural commentary on a year we will all never forget. KAWS' COMPANION 2020 was rendered laying down, appearing exhausted and defeated. This much historical KAWS set is rich with deep personal meaning to the artist, and is also very well sized in comparison to his other figures at 17" in length. New in original packaging. Medium: Painted vinyl cast resin figure. Dimensions: 17 x 8.75 inches. Accompanied by its original box; never displayed or opened; excellent condition. From a sold out edition of unknown. Stamped on the underside. Artist Statement: “2020, what a year... On the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of COMPANION I am happy to release COMPANION 2020... Thank you for all your support over the past 20 years..." KAWS is a fine artist, illustrator, painter, sculptor, product designer, and toymaker. His cartoonish style—including his best-known characters with X-ed out eyes—has its roots in his early career as a street artist, when he began replacing advertisements with his own, masterful acrylic paintings in the early 1990s. Related Categories Takashi Murakami. Street Art. Shepard Fairey. Damien Hirst. Pop Art. Kaws figurative sculpture. Kaws metallic. Banksy. Kaws resting...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
- KAWS SEPARATED Companion (KAWS brown Separated Companion)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS SEPARATED COMPANION: New & unopened in its original packaging: This highly collectible brown KAWS SEPARATED figure is derived from the Br...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
- KAWS UK Holiday Companion BlackBy KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS: HOLIDAY United Kingdom Black (KAWS UK): KAWS' signature character COMPANION presented in an upright standing position with its eyes covered. New in thei...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
- KAWS SHARE KAWS TAKE (set of 2 black KAWS companions)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS SHARE, KAWS TAKE: Set of 2 black KAWS figurative sculptures, each new & unopened in original packaging. Medium: Painted Vinyl Cast Resin (applies to each). SHARE: 12.4 x 6.3 inches. TAKE: 13.4 x 6 inches. Condition: New, unopened in original box; excellent condition (applies to each). Each from a sold out edition of unknown. Stamped on the underside of each foot. Shipped securely from New York. KAWS uses two of his characters here to convey opposing human attitudes. In the sculpture TAKE, the BFF holds a child Companion defensively, pulling it back in a gesture of mistrust as if to prevent someone else from touching it; the child cowed looks to the ground, the fear is transferred. In SHARE, the Companion is secure and looks outward, holding but not attached to the toy in its hand. KAWS’ figures...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Keith Haring Bearbrick 400% Companion (Haring BE@RBRICK)By (after) Keith HaringLocated in NEW YORK, NYKeith Haring Bearbrick Vinyl Figures: Set of two (400% & 100%): A unique, timeless collectible trademarked & licensed by the Estate of Keith Har...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
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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.