KAWSKAWS Companion 2016 (KAWS blush)2016
2016
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2016
- Dimensions:Height: 11 in (27.94 cm)Width: 5 in (12.7 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:NEW YORK, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU354310951402
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.
- Keith Haring Bearbrick 400% figure (Haring Mickey Mouse BE@RBRICK)By (after) Keith HaringLocated in NEW YORK, NYKeith Haring Mickey Mouse Bearbrick: Set of two (400% & 100%): A unique, timeless collectible trademarked & licensed by the Estate of Keith Haring. The partnered collectible reveals Keith Haring's Mickey Mouse artwork...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
- KAWS Clean Slate Brown (KAWS brown clean slate companion)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Clean Slate (Brown), new & unopened in its original packaging. A well-received work and variation of KAWS' large scale Clean Slate sculpture - a key highlight of KAWS’ major mu...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS UK Holiday Companion Grey (KAWS holiday)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS: HOLIDAY United Kingdom Grey (KAWS UK): KAWS' signature character COMPANION presented in an upright standing position with its eyes covered. New in their original packaging - p...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Jackson Pollock Bearbrick 400% figure (Jackson Pollock BE@RBRICK)Located in NEW YORK, NYJackson Pollock 400% & 100% Bearbrick Vinyl Figure (set of 2): A rare highly collectible Bearbrick Jackson Pollock statue piece, splattered from head to toe in Pollock’s signature a...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS GONE set of 2 (KAWS Gone companion)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS GONE: Set of 2 (Grey & Brown), new & unopened in their original packaging. A well-received work and variation of KAWS' large scale GONE sculpture - a ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
- KAWS Changbai brown (KAWS holiday chanbgai)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Holiday Changbai Mountain (KAWS brown Changbai): A beautifully composed KAWS COMPANION published to commemorate KAWS' larger-scale sculpture of same, at Changbai Mountain in Jil...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS ChumBy KAWSLocated in New York, NYPainted cast vinyl art toy To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iconic Chum figurine, KAWS released a new set of colors in the summer of 2022. Chum means "a close friend" is not...Category
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS ChumBy KAWSLocated in New York, NYPainted cast vinyl art toy To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iconic Chum figurine, KAWS released a new set of colors in the summer of 2022. Chum means "a close friend" is not...Category
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Rocks and Rays 13By Rachelle KriegerLocated in New York, NYWhile Rachelle Krieger hints at elements of landscape across her canvases spherical shapes for rocks and boulders, dynamic lines climbing up and across the canvas for trees—she is re...Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsLinen, Acrylic, Vinyl
- Rocks and Rays 18By Rachelle KriegerLocated in New York, NYWhile Rachelle Krieger hints at elements of landscape across her canvases spherical shapes for rocks and boulders, dynamic lines climbing up and across the canvas for trees—she is re...Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Acrylic, Vinyl
- Pumpkin Objects (Pair White & Yellow) -- Sculptures, multiples by Yayoi KusamaBy Yayoi KusamaLocated in London, GBPumpkin Object (White) & Pumpkin Object (Yellow), 2016 Yayoi Kusama The set of two painted cast resin multiples Each stamped on the base Accompanied by the original boxes Diameter:...Category
2010s Contemporary Still-life Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Paint
- "Dust" archival print, oil paint and mixed media encased in resin by MazzuccoBy Raphael MazzuccoLocated in Boca Raton, FL"Dust" by artist Raphael Mazzucco. Archival print of a nude woman at White Sands, New Mexico, with oil paint and mixed media encased in resin.Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsColor, Oil, Mixed Media, Resin
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.