KAWSKAWS Passing Through Companion 2018 (KAWS companion)2018
2018
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2018
- Dimensions:Height: 8 in (20.32 cm)Width: 3.4 in (8.64 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:NEW YORK, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU35436485922
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 creates all kinds of art — there are KAWS figures and toys, sculptures and colorful drawings, 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 KAWS statues and other 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 figures, 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.
- KAWS HOLIDAY JAPAN (Set o4 KAWS plates)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS: HOLIDAY JAPAN Mount Fuji Ceramic Plate Set (Set of 4): This standout KAWS ceramic plate set was published by All Rights Reserved to commemorate the ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph, Screen, Resin, Vinyl
- KAWS WHAT PARTY white (KAWS white what party companion)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS WHAT PARTY White: This KAWS Companion vinyl sculpture features KAWS' CHUM character in a hunched position. Published to commemorate the deb...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
- 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
- Keith Haring Andy Warhol Bearbrick 400% (Haring Warhol BE@RBRICK)By (after) Keith HaringLocated in NEW YORK, NYKeith Haring Andy Mouse Bearbrick: 400%: A unique, timeless collectible trademarked & licensed by the Estate of Keith Haring. The partnered collectible reveals Keith Haring's 'Andy M...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Piet Mondrian Bearbrick 400% (Mondrian BE@RBRICK)By Piet MondrianLocated in NEW YORK, NYPiet Mondrian 400% & 100% Bearbrick: A unique, timeless Piet Mondrian collectible trademarked & licensed by the estate Piet Mondrian. The partnered collectible reveal the artist’s ic...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS Red Blush Companion 2016 (KAWS blush)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Blush Companion 2016. New and sealed in its original packaging. Published by Medicom Japan in conjunction with the exhibition, KAWS: Where The End Starts at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2016). Medium: Vinyl Paint, Cast Resin. Year: 2016. Dimensions: 11 × 5 inches. New in original packaging; excellent condition. Stamped on the underside of foot from a sold out edition of unknown. KAWS is an American graffiti artist and designer known for his toys, paintings, and prints. Born Brian Donnelly on November 4, 1974 in Jersey City, NJ, KAWS graduated with a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and went on to work in animation. “When your whole art is based on the lettering you choose, you kinda figure out what ones work together. I just liked the shapes of the k, a, w, s,” he explained of his moniker. Having started as a graffiti artist in New York in the early 1990s, KAWS began reworking advertisements in his distinctive style. Pop Art and culture permeate his cartoonish Companion series of figurines, which bear a resemblance to the works of Takashi Murakami. KAWS worked together with Nike in 2017 to produce an Air Jordan 4 shoe and has done multiple collaborations with the clothing brand Uniqlo, continuing to blur the boundaries between fine and commercial art. The artist is also known for his large scale public installations, such as 2019’s KAWS: Holiday which was installed in the Hong Kong harbor during Basel Hong Kong. In 2019, THE KAWS ALBUM (2005) sold at auction for a record $14.8 million, breaking his previous record of $2.7 million which was set in 2018. This work is a take on the Beatles' famous 1967 album cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but instead replaced with characters from The Simpsons with the artist's signature Xs drawn across their eyes and skull. After years in the industry, KAWS gained approval from his peers in the street art world and more recently prestige from the museum and gallery worlds. Today, his work can be found in the collections at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Rosenblum Collection in Paris. KAWS currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Related Categories Shepard Fairey. Damien Hirst. KAWS red...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS - Along The Way - Black, Brown and Grey Version (set of 3)By KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXKAWS Along The Way (Set of 3), Black, Brown and Grey versions. New & unopened in its original packaging. Medium: Vinyl & Cast Resin Provenance: Modern Art Museum of Fort WorthCategory
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS - Set of 2 Companion Blush (Flayed) and Companion Blush- 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 - Pink 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 - Along The Way - Grey Version - brand newBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXKAWS Along The Way - Grey version New & unopened in its original packaging. Medium: Vinyl & Cast Resin Provenance: Modern Art Museum of Fort WorthCategory
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Kaws Blush Set Flayed & Companion YUZ Museum China Decorative Figures Pop UrbanBy KAWSLocated in Draper, UTKAWS is a multi-faceted artist straddling the worlds of art and design in his prolific body of work that ranges from paintings, murals, and large-scale sculptures to product design a...Category
2010s Pop Art Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Javier Calleja "No Art Here" Sculpture Pop Contemporary Art StreetBy Javier CallejaLocated in Draper, UTJavier Calleja is showcasing a fresh crop of paintings and sculptures in NANZUKA’s 2G gallery and the dealer’s emerging outpost, 3110NZ by LDH Kitchen, ...Category
2010s Pop Art Still-life Sculptures
MaterialsSteel
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.