KAWSAlone Again2018
2018
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2018
- Dimensions:Height: 32 in (81.28 cm)Width: 53.25 in (135.26 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU574314290812
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: Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
- Fiona (Edition of 150)By Hunt SlonemLocated in Fort Lauderdale, FLHunt Slonem Fiona (Edition of 150), 2023 Silkscreen with Hand Paint 35 x 25 inCategory
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- I Drink, Therefore I Can (PP/150)By The Connor BrothersLocated in Fort Lauderdale, FLThe Connor Brothers I Drink, Therefore I Can, 2021, (PP/150) giclée in colors with Screenprinted varnish 14.50 x 9.62 inCategory
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen, Varnish, Giclée
- The New Glory Penny from The American Dream PortfolioBy Robert IndianaLocated in Fort Lauderdale, FLRobert Indiana The New Glory Penny from The American Dream Portfolio, 1997, (48/395) Screenprint in color 22 x 17 inCategory
1990s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Red Grooms and Elizabeth Ross (From the Pas de Deux Portfolio)By Alex KatzLocated in Fort Lauderdale, FLAlex Katz (b. 1927) Red Grooms and Elizabeth Ross (From the Pas de Deux Portfolio) 1993-1994 (92/150) Screenprint in colors on Arches Cover 36 x 20 inCategory
1980s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- 4 SquareBy Robert IndianaLocated in Fort Lauderdale, FLRobert Indiana 4 Square from The American Dream Portfolio, 1997, (48/395) Screenprint in color 22 x 17 inCategory
1990s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- American Gas Works from The American Dream PortfolioBy Robert IndianaLocated in Fort Lauderdale, FLRobert Indiana American Gas Works from The American Dream Portfolio, 1997, (48/395) Screenprint in color 22 x 17 inCategory
1990s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Blame GameBy KAWSLocated in New York, NYKAWS Blame Game The complete set of 10 screenprints in colors, 2014, each signed and dated in pencil from the Edition of 100 (There are 20 artist's proofs), in the original portfolio case. Please note: Each print is 35 x 23 inches. Unframed The KAWS motif has become instantly recognizable with traditional cartoon characters transformed into vibrant, playful, and near-abstract enigmas. Known for his iconic characters with X’s on their eyes and gloves, KAWS delivers his classic dose of street-art meets contemporary art in this brilliant and minimalist work. Published by Pace Prints...Category
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- "Wolfbat Leopard Snake" 6 Color enamel silkscreenBy Dennis McNettLocated in Philadelphia, PA"Wolfbat Leopard Snake" is a 6 color enamel ink silkscreen print measuring 29in x 21.5in, and is part of an edition of 25. The ink splatters in the background are part of the design...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Animal Prints
MaterialsEnamel
- "Untitled (Cup Man)" screenprint by Keith Haring from "Kinderstern" portfolioBy Keith HaringLocated in Boca Raton, FL"Untitled (Cup Man)" screenprint by artist Keith Haring from the "Kinderstern" portfolio published by Edition Domberger to raise money to house families of chi...Category
1980s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Composition IBy Roy LichtensteinLocated in Miami, FLScreenprint on Lanaquarelle watercolor paper. Hand signed, numbered from the edition of 50 and dated in pencil. Published and printed by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, with their blind...Category
1990s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Growing 2, 1988By Keith HaringLocated in Miami, FLHand signed, numbered and dated '88 in pencil on recto in the lower right margin. Reference Littman, K, & Haring K. Keith Haring, Editions on Paper 1982-1990: The Complete Printed Wo...Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Blue Face from the Brushstroke Figures SeriesBy Roy LichtensteinLocated in Miami, FLLithograph, waxtype woodcut and screenprint on 638-g/m cold-pressed Saunders Waterford Paper. From the "Brushstroke Figures" series, 1989. Hand signed rf Lichtenstein, dated ('89) a...Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen, Woodcut
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.