KAWSBlame Game No. 62014
2014
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2014
- Dimensions:Height: 35 in (88.9 cm)Width: 23 in (58.42 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Washington, DC
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU54437624692
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
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Jean-Michel Basquiat (after) Untitled, from The Figure PortfolioBy Jean-Michel BasquiatLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Jean-Michel Basquiat (after) Title: Untitled Portfolio: 1982/2023 The Figure Portfolio Medium: Hand-pulled screenprint Year: 2023 Edition: 79/85 Sheet Size: 48" x 32" Signatu...Category
2010s Street Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Love Catcher - RedBy Mr. BrainwashLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Mr. Brainwash Title: Love Catcher - Red Medium: Screenprint on Archival paper Date: 2023 Edition: 75 Frame Size: 28" x 28 1/2" Sheet Size: 22" x 22" Signature: Hand signed wi...Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
- Sunburst MarilynBy Robert IndianaLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Robert Indiana Title: Sunburst Marilyn Medium: Screenprint in colors on wove paper Year: 2001 Edition: AP XV/XX (aside from the edition of 100) Sheet...Category
Early 2000s Nude Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Jean-Michel Basquiat (after) Untitled, from The Figure PortfolioBy Jean-Michel BasquiatLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Jean-Michel Basquiat (after) Title: Untitled Portfolio: 1982/2023 The Figure Portfolio Medium: Hand-pulled screenprint Year: 2023 Edition: 79/85 Frame Size: 55 3/4" x 39 3/4"...Category
2010s Street Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- TrespassBy Julian StanczakLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Julian Stanczak Medium: Screenprint Title: Trespass Year: 1979 Edition: 66/175 Frame Size: 28 1/4" x 23 3/4" Sheet Size: 27" x 22 3/4" Signed: Hand signed in pencilCategory
1970s Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Marilyn Portrait (Red)By Russell YoungLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Russell Young Title: Marilyn Portrait (Red) Portfolio: Marilyn Portrait Medium: Hand-pulled acrylic and enamel silkscreen on paper Date: 2014 Edition: 25/25 Sheet Size: 27" x...Category
2010s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsEnamel
- BalloonBy Michelangelo PistolettoLocated in Ljubljana, SIBalloon. Original color silkscreen on aluminum foil, 1983. Edition of 15 signed and numbered impressions on Arches paper. Art and Sport portfolio: The Yugoslav Olympic Committee of the Winter Olympic Games Sarajevo 1984...Category
1980s Post-Modern More Prints
MaterialsFoil
- WindowBy Safet ZecLocated in Ljubljana, SIOriginal color silkscreen, unknown year. Edition of 60 signed and numbered impressions on Arches paper. Safet Zec is a Bosnian painter and graphic designer, known as one of the major...Category
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Still-life Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Things are not Right!By Edward LandonLocated in Fairlawn, OHThings are not Right! Silk screen, c. 1970 Signed, editioned, and inscribed "To V.V." in pencil by the artist Image size: 2 x 2 inches Sheet size: 5 x 4 1/8 inches One of an unnumbe...Category
1970s Post-Modern More Prints
MaterialsScreen
- The Woodstock Poster by Bruce Dorfman, 1968By Bruce DorfmanLocated in New York, NYThe Woodstock Poster was originally commissioned by the Woodstock Book Shop and Woodstock Chamber of Commerce. It was subsequently purchased from the ...Category
1960s Post-Modern Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Jean Cocteau (after) - Europe Our Country - LithographBy Jean CocteauLocated in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CHLithograph after a drawing by Jean Cocteau Title: Europe Our Country Signed in the plate Dimensions: 33 x 46 cm Edition: 600 Luxury print edition from the portfolio of Sciaky 1961Category
1960s Post-Modern More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Jean Cocteau - Europe Our Homeland - Original LithographBy Jean CocteauLocated in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CHOriginal Lithograph by Jean Cocteau Title: Europe Our Homeland Signed in the plate Dimensions: 33 x 46 cm Edition: 200 Luxury print edition from the portfolio of Sciaky 1961 Jean Co...Category
1960s Post-Modern More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
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.