KAWS Passing Through Companion 2018 (Black)
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KAWSKAWS Passing Through Companion 2018 (Black)2018
2018
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2018
- Dimensions:Height: 8 in (20.32 cm)Width: 3.4 in (8.64 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:NEW YORK, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU35434763862
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.
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21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
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- KAWS Japan Holiday Companion (KAWS brown holiday companion)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Brown Holiday Companion Japan (KAWS Mount Fuji Japan): This sold out KAWS figurative piece features KAWS' signature character COMPANION in a resting position. Published by All Rights Reserved to commemorate the debut of KAWS’ 40-meters-long figure placed amidst the quaint backdrop of Mount Fuji; set up at Fujinomiya’s Camping Ground in Shizuoka. A classic KAWS Companion with a relaxing feel. New in a exclusive hard-shell KAWS designed packaging. Medium: Vinyl Year: 2019 Dimensions: 9.4 inches New/unopened; excellent condition. From a sold out edition of unknown. Acquired directly from publisher. Will look fantastic displayed as a shelf piece or hung in its original packaging. KAWS is a fine artist, illustrator, painter, sculptor, product designer, and toymaker. His cartoonish style—including his best-known characters with X-ed out eyes—has its roots in his early career as a street artist, when he began replacing advertisements with his own, masterful acrylic paintings in the early 1990s. Related Categories Takashi Murakami. Banksy. Damien Hirst. Pop Art. Kaws figurative sculpture. Kaws Passing Through. Kaws Resting Place...Category
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- KAWS - Small Lie - Brown VersionBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXIn December 2017, KAWS released a new version of his classic companion character, titled "Small Lie". The figure features the companion slumped over in what appears to be a disappoin...Category
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$920 Sale Price20% Off - KAWS - Along The Way - Black, Brown and Grey Version (set of 3)By KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXKAWS Along The Way (Set of 3), Black, Brown and Grey versions. New & unopened in its original packaging. Medium: Vinyl & Cast Resin Provenance: Modern Art Museum of Fort WorthCategory
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MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS - Companion Blush (Flayed), 2017 - Painted Cast VinylBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXThis is a brand new, in its original packaged, never open. Perfect condition. KAWS's cartoonish style—including his best-known characters with X-ed out eyes—has its roots in his ea...Category
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$1,020 Sale Price20% Off - KAWS - Set of 2 Companion Blush (Flayed) and Companion Blush- Painted Cast VinylBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXThis is a brand new, in its original packaged, never open. Perfect condition. KAWS's cartoonish style—including his best-known characters with X-ed out eyes—has its roots in his ea...Category
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- KAWS - Along The Way - Black Version - brand newBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXKAWS Along The Way - Black version New & unopened in its original packaging. Medium: Vinyl & Cast Resin Provenance: Modern Art Museum of Fort WorthCategory
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- KAWS - Take Figure - Pink Version _BFF CompanionBy KAWSLocated in Dallas, TXThis is a brand new piece in perfect condition. Several months after releasing the KAWS Share Figure in February, the artist released his long anticipated KAWS Take Figure. The fig...Category
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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.