Kaws Companion (set of 6)
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KAWSKaws Companion (set of 6)2017
2017
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2017
- Dimensions:Height: 11 in (27.94 cm)Width: 5 in (12.7 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Each new in their original packaging.
- Gallery Location:NEW YORK, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU35433298083
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.
- KAWS Companion 2016: complete set of 6By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Companion Complete Set of 6, 2016. Each new and sealed in original packaging. Published by Medicom Japan in conjunction with the exhibition, KAWS: Where The End Starts at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. These figurines have since sold out. Set includes 3 colors: Black, Brown and Grey, each in two variations (KAWS full body and Kaws Dissected...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
- KAWS: HOLIDAY UK complete set of 3 works (KAWS United Kingdom)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS: HOLIDAY United Kingdom: Complete Set of 3 works (KAWS UK): KAWS' signature character COMPANION presented in an upright standing position with its eyes covered. 3 individual works (black, brown, & grey), each new in their original packaging - published by All Rights Reserved to commemorate the debut of KAWS’ sculptural hot-air balloon — one of the world’s largest at 42 meters tall, flying over the English country-side of Bristol. Each figure comes individually housed in a standout KAWS designed hard case and collector's card. Medium: Set of 3 Painted cast resin vinyl figures. Dimensions: 12 inches in height (applies to each individual piece). New, never displayed; accompanied by original packaging. Stamped on the underside from a sold out edition of unknown. Includes artist card as pictured. A great wall or shelf set that would look fantastic displayed either in or out of the case. KAWS UK Holiday (further background): The sculptural hot-air balloon KAWS: HOLIDAY UK — one of the world’s largest at 42 meters tall — reimagines the artist’s signature work, COMPANION, in larger-than-life proportions. KAWS first set flight to his unique flying creation in Bristol, allowing his Holiday Companion to soar miles above breathtaking greenery, dominating the British skies in its debut. KAWS 'Holiday' first debuted at Seokchon Lake in Seoul in 2018 and these large inflatable real life works have since been exhibited in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Virginia Beach...Category
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Price Upon Request - Zooth BlackBy KAWSLocated in PARIS, FRKaws, 2007 Zooth black Edition 250 Medicom Toy, TokyoCategory
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Price Upon Request - Companion (5 YL), Green Glow in the DarkBy KAWSLocated in PARIS, FREdition of 500Category
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Price Upon Request - Baby Milo DissectedBy KAWSLocated in PARIS, FRKaws, 2011 Baby Milo Dissected Medicom Toy, TokyoCategory
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Price Upon Request - Towel BffBy KAWSLocated in PARIS, FRKaws, 2006 Towel bff Edition of 500Category
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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.