KAWS Monster posters set of 4 (KAWS posters)
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (Artist)
- Dimensions:Height: 25 in (63.5 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)Depth: 0.1 in (2.54 mm)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:2022
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Brooklyn, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2462331101272
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 PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- KAWS Brooklyn Museum poster 2021 (KAWS TIDE)By KAWSLocated in Brooklyn, NYKAWS 'TIDE' poster 2021 This classic KAWS poster features the artists signature Companion figure floating in a moonlit ocean and was published on the occasion of the much heralded 2021 KAWS: What Party exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum...Category
2010s Books
MaterialsPaper
- Vintage Kaws Cover Art 'Set of 3'By KAWSLocated in Brooklyn, NYA set of three rare KAWS illustrated publications: Made magazine 2003 featuring a KAWS illustrated cover band and ten or more interior photographs of the artists work additionally fe...Category
Early 2000s Posters
MaterialsPaper
- Keith Haring illustration art 1990By Keith HaringLocated in Brooklyn, NYKeith Haring cover art 1990: A rare Bulgarian arts publication featuring cover art by Keith Haring. The cover art appears to have been submitted by Haring in 1989, and was uniquely p...Category
1990s Contemporary Art
MaterialsPaper
- Jean-Michel Basquiat The Paris Review, 1989 'Vintage Jean-Michel Basquiat'By (after) Jean-Michel BasquiatLocated in Brooklyn, NYJean-Michel Basquiat The Paris Review: 1989 The Paris Review book, featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat cover art. Imagery features a reproduction of Basquiat's (untitled) 1982 Jackson. Offset lithograph on double sided art book. Measures approximately: 5.5 x 9 inches; soft cover. Approximately 50pgs. Minor age related wear; in otherwise very good overall vintage condition. 1st edition, 1st printing 1989. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. Highly collectible. Related categories: Jean-Michel Basquiat 1989. Jean-Michel Basquiat book...Category
Vintage 1980s Art Nouveau Books
MaterialsPaper
- Keith Haring The Paris Review, 1982 'Vintage Keith Haring'By Keith HaringLocated in Brooklyn, NYKeith Haring The Paris Review: 1982 The Paris Review book, with original cover design by Keith Haring. Offset lithograph on double sided art book. Measures approximately: 5.5 x 9 inches; soft cover. Approximately 50pgs. Minor age related wear; in otherwise very good overall vintage condition. 1st edition, 1st printing 1982. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. Highly collectible. Related categories: Keith Haring 1982. Keith Haring book...Category
Vintage 1980s Art Nouveau Books
MaterialsPaper
- Roy Lichtenstein The Paris Review, 1992 (Lichtenstein 1992)By (after) Roy LichtensteinLocated in Brooklyn, NYRoy Lichtenstein The Paris Review: 1992 The Paris Review book, featuring an interior spread of Roy Lichtenstein's "__" (1992). Imagery features 8 detailed segments of this esteemed 1992 work. Art book. Offset printed interior images. Measures approximately: 5.5 x 9 inches; soft cover. Approximately 50pgs. Very good overall vintage condition. 1st edition, 1st printing 1992. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. Highly collectible. Related categories: Roy Lichtenstein 1992. Roy Lichtenstein book...Category
1990s Art Nouveau Books
MaterialsPaper
- Super Model #1 & #2 by KAWSBy KAWSLocated in Stamford, CTA pair of early prints by KAWS being sold together. Supermodel #1 1999 Supermodel #2, 1999 Screen prints signed in pencil, numbered and dated 99. The prints are matched numbered ...Category
1990s American Modern Contemporary Art
MaterialsPaper
- KAWS "Urge" Portfolio of 10 Silkscreens with Additional Silkscreened Title PageBy KAWSLocated in Stamford, CTBased off of a series of paintings currently showing at the Brooklyn Museum. The limited edition works consist of 10 high quality screen prints portraying his signature CHUM characte...Category
2010s American Modern Contemporary Art
MaterialsPaper
- KAWS Brian Donnelly Rare Signed Natural Canvas Uniqlo X Tote Shopping Bag GoneBy KAWSLocated in Studio City, CAA quite rare signed tote shopping bag by world-renowned contemporary artist and New York-based sensation KAWS (Brian Donnelly). Art critics have universally and consistently compared...Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Contemporary Art
MaterialsTextile, Canvas
- Set of 4 Nude DrawingsLocated in Charleston, SCSet of 4 framed nude drawings.Category
20th Century Contemporary Art
MaterialsPaper
- Abstract Gouaches, Set of 3Located in Pasadena, CAThis is a wonderful set of three abstract gouaches signed "Manchester". The gouaches date to the second half of the twentieth century and are well framed and matter and in very good ...Category
Late 20th Century Decorative Art
MaterialsWood, Paint, Paper
- Exhibition Poster, 1968By Pablo PicassoLocated in Barcelona, BarcelonaExhibition poster for Pablo Picaso, 1968. Poster of his exhibition on the Gallery "Sala Gaspar" in Barcelona. In good original condition. Pab...Category
Vintage 1960s Spanish Mid-Century Modern Contemporary Art
MaterialsPaper
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.