KAWSOrange Companion Skeleton2007
2007
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2007
- Dimensions:Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 3 in (7.62 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Washington , DC, DC
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU171329890572
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: Washington , DC, DC
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Green Companion SkeletonBy KAWSLocated in Washington , DC, DCRare neon skeleton designed by KAWS in 2007 for his OriginalFake brand during Halloween. Featuring his Companion Skull on a movable skeletal body. Manu...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsCardboard, Screen
- Pink Companion SkeletonBy KAWSLocated in Washington , DC, DCRare neon skeleton designed by KAWS in 2007 for his OriginalFake brand during Halloween. Featuring his Companion Skull on a movable skeletal body. Manu...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsCardboard, Screen
- Untitled (skateboard set of 2)By Keith HaringLocated in Washington , DC, DCUntitled (skateboard set of 2)Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Art
MaterialsBoard, Screen
- Manifesto Dub Deck BlueBy BanksyLocated in Washington , DC, DCSkateboard deck by Clown Skateboards featuring a design by Banksy. In 2000 BANKSY was just about to explode after he, Jeff Boardman and Vikas Malik c...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Art
MaterialsBoard, Screen
- TV Face set of 3By Keith HaringLocated in Washington , DC, DCTV Face set of 3Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Art
MaterialsScreen, Board
- Original drawing w/Skateboard set of 3By Takashi MurakamiLocated in Washington , DC, DCOriginal hand drawn flower in marker by Takashi Murakami on skateboard deck that is part of a set of 3. In original shrinkwrapCategory
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Art
MaterialsBoard, Screen
- Richard Klein, American Glassware, 2010-2024, Found and altered objectsLocated in Darien, CTIn the mid 1990s Richard Klein started working with found glass objects, including bottles, drinking glasses, ashtrays, and eyeglasses. Initially, Klein rejected any object with comm...Category
2010s Assemblage Still-life Sculptures
MaterialsMetal
- "Ersatz Ceramic IV" Sculpture by Dominic BeattieBy Dominic BeattieLocated in London, GBDominic Beattie Ersatz Ceramic I Ink, spray paint, cardboard, wood H 30 x W 5 x D 5 cm (variable)Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsWood, Ink, Mixed Media, Spray Paint, Cardboard
- "Ersatz Ceramic II" Sculpture by Dominic BeattieBy Dominic BeattieLocated in London, GBDominic Beattie Ersatz Ceramic II Ink, spray paint, cardboard, wood H 30 x W 5 x D 5 cm (variable)Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsWood, Ink, Mixed Media, Spray Paint, Cardboard
- "Ersatz Ceramic IV" Sculpture by Dominic BeattieBy Dominic BeattieLocated in London, GBDominic Beattie Ersatz Ceramic IV Ink, spray paint, cardboard, wood H 30 x W 5 x D 5 cm (variable)Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsWood, Ink, Spray Paint, Cardboard
- 8 pos. & neg. built rectangles - contemporary modern abstract painting reliefBy Eef de GraafLocated in Doetinchem, NL8 positive & negative built rectangles is a unique one-of-a-kind contemporary modern painting relief by Dutch artist Eef de Graaf. The relief is made from...Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
MaterialsAcrylic, Cardboard
- 16 red/black quadrants RZ - contemporary modern abstract painting reliefBy Eef de GraafLocated in Doetinchem, NL16 red/black quadrants RZ is a unique one-of-a-kind contemporary modern painting relief by Dutch artist Eef de Graaf. The relief is made from meticulously hand-cut plain black and re...Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCardboard
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.