KAWS Flayed Companions 2016 (set of 2 KAWS flayed companions)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
is featured in key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art More Art
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS Flayed Companions 2016 (set of 2 KAWS flayed companions)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
is featured in key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS SEPARATED set of 2 works (KAWS Separated Companion set)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
highly collectible KAWS SEPARATED figures are derived from the Brooklyn based artist’s larger scale
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS Flayed Companion 2016: set of 2 works (KAWS companion)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a sophisticated humor and thoughtful critique of consumer
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS BFF set of 3 works (KAWS BFF Companion set)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, Companion, which is featured in key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS SHARE Set of 2 (KAWS share companion black & brown)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
featured in key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a sophisticated
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS SHARE Set of 2 (KAWS brown grey share companions)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS, born Brian Donnelly, straddles the worlds of art as well as
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS Along The Way Black (KAWS Black Along The Way companion)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a sophisticated humor and thoughtful critique of
Resin, Vinyl
$1,375
H 5.5 in W 7 in D 5.5 in
KAWS Taipei Holiday Taipei & Japan set of 2 (KAWS Brown Companion)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
KAWS Brown Holiday Companion: 2 works (KAWS Taipei & KAWS Japan): A set of two KAWS Holiday figures
Resin, Vinyl
$2,450
H 11 in W 5 in D 3 in
KAWS Flayed Companions 2016: set of 2 (KAWS brown black flayed)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a sophisticated humor and
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS Black Companion 2016: set of 2 works (KAWS Companion black)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
is featured in key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS Flayed Companions 2016: complete set of 4 works (KAWS companion)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
figures. KAWS’ art possesses a sophisticated humor and thoughtful critique of consumer products. His
Resin, Vinyl
$1,850
H 3 in W 10.5 in
KAWS Holiday Singapore complete set of 3 works (KAWS Singapore companion)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
KAWS Holiday Singapore (KAWS Singapore): complete set of 3 works: A compete set of 3 KAWS Holiday
Resin, Vinyl
Price Upon Request
H 11 in W 5 in
KAWS Bearbrick Set of 3 (KAWS Be@rbrick 400% dissected companions)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
collaboration between KAWS' OriginalFake brand and Medicom; these much sought-after KAWS Be@rbrick figures are
Resin, Vinyl
$1,200Sale Price|20% Off
H 11 in W 5 in
KAWS Blush 2016 & KAWS WHAT PARTY white (set of 2 works)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
KAWS Red Blush Companion 2016 & KAWS WHAT PARTY white: set of two individual works: Each piece is
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS Clean Slate Set of 2 (KAWS clean slate brown & grey)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
figures. KAWS’ art possesses a sophisticated humor and thoughtful critique of consumer products. His
Resin, Vinyl
$3,000
H 7.75 in W 6 in
KAWS SEPARATED complete set of 3 works (KAWS Separated Companion set)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, KAWS: WHAT PARTY. The individual figures can be seen covering their eyes in a seated position much like
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS CLEAN SLATE set of 2 works (KAWS clean slate black & grey)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, Companion, which is featured in key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses
Resin, Vinyl
Holiday Big Moon By KAWS
By KAWS
Located in Dubai, Dubai
reinterpretations of familiar characters, including his signature "Companion" figures, KAWS has made a significant
Mixed Media
$5,800
H 14.25 in W 7 in
KAWS Clean Slate complete set of 3 works (KAWS Companion clean slate set)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
figures and variation of KAWS’ large scale Clean Slate sculpture held within the permanent collection of
Resin, Vinyl
Seeing Blue (BFF Lamp) By Kaws
By KAWS
Located in Dubai, Dubai
reinterpretations of familiar characters, including his signature "Companion" figures, KAWS has made a significant
KAWS Passing Through Companion 2018 (Black)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a sophisticated humor and thoughtful
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS CLEAN SLATE set of 2 works
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, Companion, which is featured in key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS Holiday Companion (Set of 2 works)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
published by All Rights Reserved to commemorate the debut of KAWS’ large scale floating figures in Seoul’s
Resin, Vinyl
KAWS SEPARATED Companion (set of 2 works)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Museum retrospective, KAWS: WHAT PARTY. The individual figures can be seen covering their eyes in a
Resin, Vinyl
$8,000Sale Price|20% Off
H 7.25 in W 4.5 in D 3.5 in
Wood Hand Sculpture by KAWS, Smooth Wood, Contemporary, 2010s
By KAWS
Located in New York, NY
. KAWS subverts these figures to question the lines between consumerism and cultural value. Critics have
Wood
KAWS Passing Through Companion: set of 2 (2018)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, which is featured in key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a
Resin, Vinyl
Complete Set of 2 Kachamukku Authentic KAWS Art Sculptures
By KAWS
Located in Draper, UT
KAWS teamed up with Hirake! Ponkikki’s Gachapin and Mukku for the release of his Kachamukku figures
Plastic, Vinyl
$2,800
H 8 in W 3.4 in D 5 in
KAWS Passing Through Companion Set (complete set of three 2018)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
featured in key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a sophisticated
Resin, Vinyl
$2,600Sale Price|20% Off
H 10 in W 8 in
KAWS TOGETHER 2018 (set of 2 works new in original packaging)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, which is featured in key paintings, sculptures, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a
Resin, Vinyl
$205,000
H 35 in W 22 in
Man's Best Friend Screenprint, Contemporary, Framed, 2010s, 35x22 in
By KAWS
Located in New York, NY
Peanuts, to name a few. KAWS subverts these figures to question the lines between consumerism and cultural
Screen
$1,840Sale Price|20% Off
H 11 in W 3.75 in D 5 in
Small Lie Sculpture, Pop Art, Vinyl Paint, 2010+, New, 11x3.75 in
By KAWS
Located in New York, NY
name a few. KAWS subverts these figures to question the lines between consumerism and cultural value
Vinyl
$8,800Sale Price|20% Off
H 7.25 in W 4.5 in D 3.5 in
Wood Hand Sculpture, Pop Art Style, Wood, 2010s, New Condition
By KAWS
Located in New York, NY
. KAWS subverts these figures to question the lines between consumerism and cultural value. Critics have
Wood
Chul-Su - Squid Game
By KAWS
Located in London, GB
of vinyl figures that blend KAWS's distinctive COMPANION aesthetic with the original design of Chul
Resin, Vinyl
Young-Hee - Squid Game
By KAWS
Located in London, GB
in the creation of vinyl figures that blend KAWS's distinctive COMPANION aesthetic with the original
Resin, Vinyl
$3,400
H 40 in W 18 in D 9.5 in
CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd COMPADRE, CHROMA BEST WORK, 2026 40 INCHES
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
within the CHROMA universe of labor, repetition, and transformation. KAWS’ Companion figures have become
Glass, Resin, Mixed Media
$4,400
H 14.25 in W 8 in D 8 in
KAWS Clean Slate Set of 2 (KAWS brown & black clean slate companion)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a sophisticated humor and thoughtful critique of consumer
Resin, Vinyl
$3,650
H 10.5 in W 9 in
KAWS Along The Way: complete set of 3 (KAWS Companion Along The Way set)
By KAWS
Located in NEW YORK, NY
, products, and toy figures. KAWS’ art possesses a sophisticated humor and thoughtful critique of consumer
Resin, Vinyl
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.
Perhaps one of the most influential contemporary art movements, Pop art emerged in the 1950s. In stark contrast to traditional artistic practice, its practitioners drew on imagery from popular culture — comic books, advertising, product packaging and other commercial media — to create original Pop art paintings, prints and sculptures that celebrated ordinary life in the most literal way.
ORIGINS OF POP ART
CHARACTERISTICS OF POP ART
POP ARTISTS TO KNOW
ORIGINAL POP ART ON 1STDIBS
The Pop art movement started in the United Kingdom as a reaction, both positive and critical, to the period’s consumerism. Its goal was to put popular culture on the same level as so-called high culture.
Richard Hamilton’s 1956 collage Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? is widely believed to have kickstarted this unconventional new style.
Pop art works are distinguished by their bold imagery, bright colors and seemingly commonplace subject matter. Practitioners sought to challenge the status quo, breaking with the perceived elitism of the previously dominant Abstract Expressionism and making statements about current events. Other key characteristics of Pop art include appropriation of imagery and techniques from popular and commercial culture; use of different media and formats; repetition in imagery and iconography; incorporation of mundane objects from advertisements, cartoons and other popular media; hard edges; and ironic and witty treatment of subject matter.
Although British artists launched the movement, they were soon overshadowed by their American counterparts. Pop art is perhaps most closely identified with American Pop artist Andy Warhol, whose clever appropriation of motifs and images helped to transform the artistic style into a lifestyle. Most of the best-known American artists associated with Pop art started in commercial art (Warhol made whimsical drawings as a hobby during his early years as a commercial illustrator), a background that helped them in merging high and popular culture.
Roy Lichtenstein was another prominent Pop artist that was active in the United States. Much like Warhol, Lichtenstein drew his subjects from print media, particularly comic strips, producing paintings and sculptures characterized by primary colors, bold outlines and halftone dots, elements appropriated from commercial printing. Recontextualizing a lowbrow image by importing it into a fine-art context was a trademark of his style. Neo-Pop artists like Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami further blurred the line between art and popular culture.
Pop art rose to prominence largely through the work of a handful of men creating works that were unemotional and distanced — in other words, stereotypically masculine. However, there were many important female Pop artists, such as Rosalyn Drexler, whose significant contributions to the movement are recognized today. Best known for her work as a playwright and novelist, Drexler also created paintings and collages embodying Pop art themes and stylistic features.
Read more about the history of Pop art and the style’s famous artists, and browse the collection of original Pop art paintings, prints, photography and other works for sale on 1stDibs.
The history of sculpture as we know it is believed to have origins in Ancient Greece, while small sculptural carvings are among the most common examples of prehistoric art. In short, sculpture as a fine art has been with us forever. A powerful three-dimensional means of creative expression, sculpture has long been most frequently associated with religion — consider the limestone Great Sphinx in Giza, Egypt — while the tradition of collecting sculpture, which has also been traced back to Greece as well as to China, far precedes the emergence of museums.
Technique and materials in sculpture have changed over time. Stone sculpture, which essentially began as images carved into cave walls, is as old as human civilization itself. The majority of surviving sculpted works from ancient cultures are stone. Traditionally, this material and pottery as well as metal — bronze in particular — were among the most common materials associated with this field of visual art. Artists have long sought new ways and materials in order to make sculptures and express their ideas. Material, after all, is the vehicle through which artists express themselves, or at least work out the problems knocking around in their heads. It also allows them to push the boundaries of form, subverting our expectations and upending convention. As an influential sculptor as much as he was a revolutionary painter and printmaker, Pablo Picasso worked with everything from wire to wood to bicycle seats.
If you are a lover of art and antiques or are thinking of bringing a work of sculpture into your home for the first time, there are several details to keep in mind. As with all other works of art, think about what you like. What speaks to you? Visit local galleries and museums. Take in works of public art and art fairs when you can and find out what kind of sculpture you like. When you’ve come to a decision about a specific work, try to find out all you can about the piece, and if you’re not buying from a sculptor directly, work with an art expert to confirm the work’s authenticity.
And when you bring your sculpture home, remember: No matter how big or small your new addition is, it will make a statement in your space. Large- and even medium-sized sculptures can be heavy, so hire some professional art handlers as necessary and find a good place in your home for your piece. Whether you’re installing a towering new figurative sculpture — a colorful character by KAWS or hyperreal work by Carole A. Feuerman, perhaps — or an abstract work by Won Lee, you’ll want the sculpture to be safe from being knocked over. (You’ll find that most sculptures should be displayed at eye level, while some large busts look best from below.)
On 1stDibs, find a broad range of exceptional sculptures for sale. Browse works by your favorite creator, style, period or other attribute.