Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
The artist with the current work (left) Being socially rebellious, internationally acclaimed contemporary American artist KAWS first found his unique artistic language in the streets of New York City during the 90s. Graffitiing and reworking over advertisements liberated his creativity, where his artist’s signature ‘XX’ motif came to life and unique figure motifs like COMPANION and BENDY were born. KAWS adds his own era-specific cartoon creations into his compositions and infuses his iconic symbolism into them. Taking on the legacies of Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Jeff Koons for including elements of contemporary pop culture, cartoons and graffiti into his artistic vocabulary, KAWS expands his presence beyond bus stop and phonebooth into the globe.
Art for All
KAWS, COMPANION, 121 foot, Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong KAWS artworks drastically vary from collectible plushies for homes, tondo canvases for museums, 2 foot tall sculptures for parks and monumental 121 foot floaties for major cities, such as one in Hong Kong Victoria Harbour in 2019. The artist strives to create non-exclusive art and a social symbol that fuses part of contemporary culture and consumerism. Furthermore, the ambitious artist collaborates with commercial brands like UNIQLO, Bearbrick and Campana brothers. This expands his outreach further and transforms his art with unlimited possibilities in forms of multiple mediums, like daily clothewear, collectibles and furniture, etc. KAWS makes sure his art is accessible for all classes and his presence is everywhere in the world.
Iconic Circular Tondo
Raphael, The Alba Madonna, c. 1510. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. From 2010 onwards KAWS started painting circular tondo canvases, this form dates back to the Renaissance. The rounded canvas circulates and centralises the direct focal point of the viewer onto the composition, a format that great Masters like Raphael excelled in. For example in The Alba Madonna, the focus is brought to the figures side-eyeing across the canvas. The present work features the same motif with KAWS’ contemporary touch. UNTITLED portrays a side view of a dark blue freckled face with the iconic X eye in teal with bright pink pupils. As the grey eyeball rolls across the centre of the canvas, the character charges on the viewer with a confrontational side-eye stare. KAWS paints with bold blocks of contrasting dark and sharp neon colours to outline the character’s features, the zoomed-in face is flattened and conveys a distinctive sense of abstraction with three-quarters of an eye and a quartered face. As such, the piece demands active engagement to re-associate the represented features of the work with the character it represents.
The large scale tondo format makes the work monumental, for example, another 96 inches KAWS tondo was exhibited in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2013. The work bulges out with a full front view of a pair of XX eyes against an adjacent 1920s-era Hamilton grand environment. This sets up a sharp contrast between a contemporary fashionable icon and a National historic landmark site, elevating this type of large scale tondos to the status of high art. The present lot UNTITLED encapsulates the artist’s idiosyncratic brand of Pop Art that bridges the worlds of art, popular culture and commerce.
Installation view of the current work at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, KAWS at PAFA, 2013 Collector’s Digest
“KAWS is not just referring to Pop culture, he is making it.”
— Michael AupingConsidered as one of the most iconic and forward-thinking artists of his generation, KAWS is celebrated for his multi-disciplinary practice that subverts the traditions of fine art with street art influences, satirising consumer culture.
Breaking the ideological hierarchies between the avant-garde and kitsch, KAWS gives his characters life through a variety of mediums including clothing, limited-edition toys, and large-scale sculptures. His works can be found in prominent public collections around the world, including the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; CAC Malaga; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and the Rosenblum Collection, Paris.
KAWS has exhibited extensively around the globe, most recently with solo exhibitions at the Serpentine, London: KAWS: NEW FICTION (digital exhibition) from 18 January - 27 February, 2022; the High Museum of Art in Atlanta: KAWS PRINTS, from 3 December 2021 – 27 March 2022; and Skarstedt Gallery in New York (5 November – 11 December 2021), KAWS: SPOKE TOO SOON. KAWS also recently exhibited a monumental retrospective in his hometown, KAWS: WHAT PARTY, which was hosted by the Brooklyn Museum in New York between 26 February – 5 September 2021. Other recent solo exhibitions also include the Mori Arts Centre in Tokyo (16 July – 11 October 2021), and a retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia (2019-2020).
Provenance
Private Collection, Hong Kong
Exhibited
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, KAWS at PAFA, 12 October 2013 - 5 January 2014
Artist Biography
KAWS
American • 1974
To understand the work of KAWS is to understand his roots in the skateboard and graffiti crews of New York City. Brian Donnelly chose KAWS as his moniker to tag city streets beginning in the 1990s, and quickly became a celebrated standout in the scene. Having swapped spray paint for explorations in fine art spanning sculpture, painting and collage, KAWS has maintained a fascination with classic cartoons, including Garfield, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Simpsons, and reconfigured familiar subjects into a world of fantasy.
Perhaps he is most known for his larger-than-life fiberglass sculptures that supplant the body of Mickey Mouse onto KAWS' own imagined creatures, often with 'x'-ed out eyes or ultra-animated features. However, KAWS also works frequently in neon and vivid paint, adding animation and depth to contemporary paintings filled with approachable imagination. There is mass appeal to KAWS, who exhibits globally and most frequently in Asia, Europe and the United States.
32
UNTITLED
signed and dated 'KAWS.. 13' on the reverse
acrylic on canvas
diameter 243.8 cm. (95 7/8 in.)
Painted in 2013.
Estimate
HK$3,500,000 - 4,500,000
€426,000-548,000
$449,000-577,000
Sold for HK$3,276,000
Charlotte Raybaud
Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
+852 2318 2026
CharlotteRaybaud@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Hong Kong Auction 22 June 2022
1
Julie Curtiss
Funky Boots
Estimate HK$600,000 - 800,000
Sold for HK$1,071,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
2
Jamian Juliano-Villani
Hand's Job
Estimate HK$400,000 - 600,000
Sold for HK$819,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
3
Lucy Bull
8:50
Estimate HK$1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for HK$11,382,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
4
Scott Kahn
Soundview
Estimate HK$900,000 - 1,400,000
Sold for HK$4,032,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
5
Hernan Bas
Who Told Them We Were Coming?
Estimate HK$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for HK$3,528,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
6
Shara Hughes
Pleasure House
Estimate HK$3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for HK$6,542,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
7
Loie Hollowell
Linked Lingam in Red and Blue
Estimate HK$1,800,000 - 2,800,000
Sold for HK$3,024,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
8
Anna Weyant
Chest
Estimate HK$500,000 - 700,000
Sold for HK$4,158,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
9
George Condo
Transparent Female Forms
Estimate HK$25,000,000 - 35,000,000
Sold for HK$36,550,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
10
This lot is no longer available.
11
Matthew Wong
Pink Wave
Estimate HK$16,000,000 - 26,000,000
Sold for HK$22,635,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
12
David Hockney
Painted Landscape (Or Red and Blue Landscape)
Estimate HK$16,000,000 - 24,000,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
13
Ed Ruscha
Spied Upon Scene: Window
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for HK$3,150,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
14
Huang Yuxing
Pearl Shore
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$3,024,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
15
This lot is no longer available.
16
Nicolas Party
Two Portraits
Estimate HK$6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for HK$6,542,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
17
George Condo
The Strangers
Estimate HK$5,000,000 - 6,500,000
Sold for HK$5,670,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
18
Ernie Barnes
Life After Sundown
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$6,048,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
19
Javier Calleja
1971
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for HK$4,032,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
20
Yoshitomo Nara
Untitled
Estimate HK$6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for HK$7,510,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
21
This lot is no longer available.
22
Adrian Ghenie
Pie Fight Study 4
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for HK$4,032,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
23
Michaël Borremans
Stars
Estimate HK$2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$2,772,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
24
Li Chen
Angelic Smile
Estimate HK$2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$4,284,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
25
Zhang Xiaogang
Bloodline Series - Big Family
Estimate HK$7,500,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for HK$8,115,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
26
Zhang Enli
Things
Estimate HK$2,200,000 - 4,200,000
Sold for HK$2,520,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
27
This lot is no longer available.
28
Lee Ufan
From Line No. 790372
Estimate HK$9,000,000 - 14,000,000
Sold for HK$11,140,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
29
Pierre Soulages
Peinture 102 x 130 cm, 11 mars 2016
Estimate HK$7,500,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for HK$8,115,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
30
Ouattara Watts
Intercessor
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$1,134,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
31
Sam Francis
Untitled
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
32
KAWS
UNTITLED
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for HK$3,276,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
33
Kohei Nawa
PixCell-Deer #21
Estimate HK$2,800,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for HK$3,780,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
34
This lot is no longer available.
35
Anna Park
I to I
Estimate HK$300,000 - 500,000
Sold for HK$2,268,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
36
Trey Abdella
Some Things Aren't Worth Waiting For
Estimate HK$600,000 - 900,000
Sold for HK$2,646,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
37
Szabolcs Bozó
One Bird, A Cat and A Man
Estimate HK$400,000 - 600,000
Sold for HK$882,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
38
Katherine Bernhardt
Laundry Day
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$2,142,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
39
Issy Wood
Dog With Pendants (Not as Close)
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for HK$1,386,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
40
Robert Nava
Shark Wing Pegasus
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for HK$3,780,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
41
Ayako Rokkaku
Untitled
Estimate HK$2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$8,115,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
42
Allison Zuckerman
Bullseye
Estimate HK$550,000 - 750,000
Sold for HK$1,071,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
43
Serge Attukwei Clottey
Valentine's Day
Estimate HK$250,000 - 450,000
Sold for HK$693,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
44
Genieve Figgis
Pink Ballroom
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for HK$2,016,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
45
Emmanuel Taku
Brothers in Red
Estimate HK$300,000 - 500,000
Sold for HK$1,512,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
46
Aboudia
Take Me II
Estimate HK$500,000 - 700,000
Sold for HK$2,520,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
47
José Parlá
Writers' Bench: Grand Concourse & 149th Street, The Bronx
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$1,764,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
48
Edgar Plans
Night Creatures
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for HK$3,024,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
49
Rafa Macarrón
Sin título (Cosmos)
Estimate HK$700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for HK$1,386,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.