In Short
“KAWS is not just referring to pop culture, he is making it” — Michael Auping
The KAWS (r)Evolution
KAWS, HOLIDAY, 2018. Seokchon Lake, Seoul, South Korea, Photo courtesy AllRightsReserved, Artwork © KAWS Street Art Beginnings
As a teenager in New Jersey, Brian Donnelly, aka KAWS, began drawing graffiti around his neighborhood. Across the river in New York, he found a community interested in skateboarding and graffiti, and began undertaking more ambitious, large-scale pieces on trains, walls, and billboards in the early 1990s.
KAWS’s signature graffiti tag on a MetLife billboard, 1995. 
KAWS’s signature graffiti tag on a train car, circa 1991-1995. Animation Days
After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan in 1996, KAWS was an animator for three years, painting for Disney’s shows Doug and 101 Dalmatians and the MTV series Daria. This experience introduced him to the cel animator’s paint-by-numbers technique and use of a defined palette for consistency, which would later reappear in COMPANION (DETAIL OF CROWD SHOT).
Still from Nickelodeon’s television show, Doug, featuring characters Patti Mayonnaise and Doug Funnie, circa 1991. Advertising Interventions
Given a master key by a friend in 1966, KAWS began to unlock advertisement cases by phone booths and bus stations. He would remove the ads, meticulously incorporate his own interventions in his studio, and then return the painted posters to their cabinets. This new technique allowed KAWS to inject his visual language into the public sphere, blurring the line between street and fine art.
KAWS, UNTITLED (DKNY), 1997. Artwork © KAWS The First COMPANION
In 1999, KAWS visited Tokyo for the first time, where he was introduced to designer figurine-making. Inspired by the work of Claes Oldenburg, he released his first toy later that year with the manufacturer Bounty Hunter: an 8-inch tall edition of his black and grey character COMPANION. A figure reminiscent of Mickey Mouse whose head is replaced by a skill with crossbones and X-ed eyes, this seminal persona became a recurring motif in KAWS’s work. COMPANION would begin KAWS’s journey in both the commercial art market and with sculpture, a path he would spend the next two decades exploring.
KAWS, COMPANION, 1999. Artwork © KAWS The Execution of COMPANION, 2000
KAWS created the present work, COMPANION (DETAIL OF CROWD SHOT), when he began experimenting with the same iconography he used in his public advertising interventions on canvas. The painting features the rare earlier version of the COMPANION figure, with its slender arms and legs, which he depicted only from 1999 until 2004. In his paintings from this period that allude to cartoon imagery, such as (DETAIL OF CROWD SHOT), KAWS boldly challenged the contemporary relationship between fine art and pop culture.
KAWS in his Brooklyn studio on Kent Avenue, 2000. Photograph by Christian Witkin, Artwork © KAWS The Legacy of COMPANION
In 2004, the artist released a new COMPANION edition with a slightly altered body shape, including stockier arms and legs. Since, COMPANION has become the most iconic character in the KAWS kingdom, and was even transformed into a balloon for the 2012 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In 2018, the artist unveiled KAWS: HOLIDAY, a 92-foot-long inflatable COMPANION that floated on Seokchon Lake in Seoul; other colossal COMPANION sculptures have been displayed in Hong Kong Harbour, Virginia Beach, Taipei, and at Mount Fuji in Japan.
KAWS’s COMPANION balloon in midtown Manhattan, Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, 2012. Artwork © KAWS KAWS, HOLIDAY, 2018. Seokchon Lake, Seoul, South Korea, Photo courtesy AllRightsReserved, Artwork © KAWS Street Art Beginnings
As a teenager in New Jersey, Brian Donnelly, aka KAWS, began drawing graffiti around his neighborhood. Across the river in New York, he found a community interested in skateboarding and graffiti, and began undertaking more ambitious, large-scale pieces on trains, walls, and billboards in the early 1990s.
KAWS’s signature graffiti tag on a MetLife billboard, 1995.
Anatomy of the COMPANION
An Evolving Body
While KAWS’s COMPANION has always been clad in overall shorts, his original legs were much more slender than his contemporary counterpart’s.
Between launching his first COMPANION toy in 1999 and releasing a new edition in 2004, KAWS changed multiple facets of his signature figure’s appearance. The present COMPANION features the rare earlier shape, providing a unique look at the early development of the character that has taken pop culture by storm. A Ghoulish Visage
KAWS’s COMPANION features a skull for a head with a pair of X’s for eyes. While the COMPANION’s ears used to be shaped as a distinct pair of crossbones, there is no separation between the bones of the current COMPANION shape.Lanky Arms
Today's COMPANION figure features much stockier arms than the original version. An Evolving Body
While KAWS’s COMPANION has always been clad in overall shorts, his original legs were much more slender than his contemporary counterpart’s.
Between launching his first COMPANION toy in 1999 and releasing a new edition in 2004, KAWS changed multiple facets of his signature figure’s appearance. The present COMPANION features the rare earlier shape, providing a unique look at the early development of the character that has taken pop culture by storm.
Provenance
Private Collection
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.
Property from a Private European Collection
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COMPANION (DETAIL OF CROWD SHOT)
signed, titled and dated "KAWS.. 00 COMPANION (Detail of CROWD SHOT)" on the reverse
acrylic on canvas
67 1/2 x 47 1/2 in. (171.5 x 120.7 cm)
Painted in 2000.
Estimate
$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,380,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
Head of Evening Sale
New York
+1 212 940 1278
20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 2 July 2020
