Inspired by the Pop sensibility of artists like Claes Oldenburg and Tom Wesselmann, KAWS topples traditional ideas of fine art, masterfully blurring the line between art and commerce. Born Brian Donnelly, KAWS’ career began as a teenager in the New York street art scene, where he created ‘forced collaborations’ with fashion advertisements found in phone booths, incorporating images of Christy Turlington and Kate Moss with his own signature characters. The Williamsburg-based artist claims that the pseudonym ‘KAWS’ has no special significance, although his dual identity recalls the archetypal comic book hero.

These early graffiti experiments led the artist to Tokyo, where he embraced the growing universe of limited edition toys and clothing. In Japan, KAWS was able to explore crossover projects, allowing him to translate his singular aesthetic to a broader audience. He cites Takashi Murakami as an artist who has influenced his own practice, both in his perfectionist mentality as well as his diffusion into commercial spheres. KAWS emphasises the democratic nature of his work: ‘I just want to make stuff that no one is ever too stupid to get.’ (KAWS quoted in Cesar Pesari, Paper Magazine, November 2013).

KAWS’ refined graphic language is the result of a meticulous process wherein he first hand draws his figures, editing them digitally in Illustrator, before eventually painting them from a projection, eventually adding his signature ‘X’ eyes. Sculptures like Accomplice require a more difficult process, as the artist must translate his vision in the round, working in 3D modelling software. When blown up to a life-sized scale, the present lot playfully draws a connection to the art historical tradition of figurative sculpture, beginning with Egyptian sarcophagi. The resulting sculpture is an adult-sized toy, injecting humour into more mature notions of life and death.