KAWSBlame Game2014
2014
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2014
- Dimensions:Height: 35 in (88.9 cm)Width: 23 in (58.42 cm)
- More Editions & Sizes:Edition of 100Price: $199,500
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1977210316222
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 7 days of delivery.
- Lantern Flowers, Black and Blue from Big Lantern Flowers, 2017By Donald SultanLocated in New York, NYThis is a screenprint in black and blue with flocking on museum board, Edition of 30, Signed, titled and dated in pencil, numbered PP 3/3, a printer's proof 57.8 x 57.8 inches is th...Category
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Campbells Soup on Canvas Shopping BagBy Andy WarholLocated in New York, NYAndy Warhol Silk Screen on Canvas Shopping Bag Published for the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art of Boston in 1966 FramedCategory
1960s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Four Seasons of HOPE, The complete portfolio of 4 prints, Gold EditionBy Robert IndianaLocated in New York, NYRobert Indiana’s message of HOPE has been an important, poetic language spanning his long career. The Four Seasons of HOPE was created for his solo exhibition at the historic Four Se...Category
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Four Seasons of Hope, The complete portfolio of 4 prints, Silver EditionBy Robert IndianaLocated in New York, NYRobert Indiana’s message of HOPE has been an important, poetic language spanning his long career. The Four Seasons of HOPE was created for his solo exhibition at the historic Four Seasons Restaurant in tribute to his friend and architect Philip Johnson. Robert Indiana Four...Category
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Summer from The Four Seasons of Hope, (blue/yellow/green) 48/100 Silver EditionBy Robert IndianaLocated in New York, NYRobert Indiana’s message of HOPE has been an important, poetic language spanning his long career. The Four Seasons of HOPE was created for his solo exhibition at the historic Four Se...Category
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Winter from The Four Seasons of HOPE, Silver EditionBy Robert IndianaLocated in New York, NYRobert Indiana’s message of HOPE has been an important, poetic language spanning his long career. The Four Seasons of HOPE was created for his solo exhibition at the historic Four Se...Category
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Star of David, Screenprint by Nissan EngelBy Nissan EngelLocated in Long Island City, NYArtist: Nissan Engel, Israeli (1931 - ) Title: Star of David Medium: Silkscreen, signed in pencil Image Size: 21 x 15 inches Size: 28 x 18.5 in. (71.12 ...Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Carnival - Original Screen Print by Fritz Baumgartner - 1980By Fritz BaumgartnerLocated in Roma, ITCarnival is a wonderful colored serigraph on paper, realized by the German artist Fritz Baumgartner. Hand-signed and numbered in pencil on the lower margin. Edition of 100 prints. ...Category
20th Century Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Cielo (Sky) - Screen Print by Bruno di Bello - 1980 ca.By Bruno Di BelloLocated in Roma, ITHand Signed. Edition of 100 pieces. Original title: "Cielo". Very good conditions.Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Chevaliers - Original Screen Print by Rosario Mazzella - 1970sBy Rosario MazzellaLocated in Roma, ITImage dimensions: 56 x 35.8 cm. Chevaliers is an original colored serigraph on Fabriano on watermarked paper realized by the Italian artist Rosario Mazzella (1932). A colorful orig...Category
1970s Contemporary Still-life Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Ferro (Iron) - Screen Print by Bruno di Bello - 1980 ca.By Bruno Di BelloLocated in Roma, ITHand Signed. Edition of 100 pieces. Original title: "Ferro". Excellent conditions.Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Woman in Yellow - Screen Print by Fritz Baumgartner - 1970 ca.By Fritz BaumgartnerLocated in Roma, ITHand Signed. Edition of 90 pieces plus some Artist's Proofs. Excellent conditions.Category
1970s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
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.