KAWS

b. 1974

KAWS, born Brian Donnelly in 1974, is known for his appropriations of iconic cartoons, altered with his trademark skull and crossed-out eyes. Simple yet arresting, these instantly recognisable images reflect the artist’s first experiments as a street artist. Graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1996, he started working as a freelance animator. Continuing to work as a graffiti artist, he developed an iconography from his constant interaction with urban advertisement, which evolved further after a trip to Japan in 1999. Fascinated by the ‘otaku’ culture obsessed with fictional characters and collectables, he started designing toys for the Japanese company Bounty Hunter. In between entertainment, design and high art, KAWS’ designs are elusive yet compelling, playful yet eerie, echoing the idiosyncrasies of contemporary consumerist culture.

Appropriating iconic cartoons like Snoopy, Spongebob and the Simpsons and altering them with his trademark skull, crossed-out eyes and refined graphic language, KAWS’ aesthetic is instantly recognisable. Born Brian Donelly in 1974, KAWS is an American artist and designer whose simple yet magnetic figures have quickly sparked a cult-like following. Working across graffiti, painting, sculpture and commercial design, KAWS’ playful figures have the capacity to reach wideranging audiences.

Attracted to the way the letters K-A-W-S harmonised with each other, Donelly started using his tag ‘KAWS’ as a teenager, spraying it over the walls of Jersey City. KAWS’ work as a street artist coincided with his career in illustration. In 1996 he received a degree in illustration from the School of Visual Arts, New York. He would carry on as a freelance animator for Jumbo Pictures, working on projects including ‘101 Dalmatians’, ‘Daria’ and ‘Doug’.

In graffiti his focus was on lettering but since then KAWS has drawn on his experience in animation to develop an iconography for his acts of ‘subvertising’. As a response to the overgrowing presence of advertisement in the urban space, KAWS removed posters from bus shelters and telephone booths. He then returned them after introjecting his own imagery like the snake-like character ‘Bendy’, fusing the glossy ads with his subversive urban language into a new and exciting coalescence.

After a trip to Japan in 1999, KAWS was introduced to the ‘otaku’ subculture and its obsessions with characters and collectables. He was soon offered to design a toy with the Japanese company Bounty Hunter, giving birth to ‘Companion’. This marked a turning point in KAWS’ career as toy shops, design boutiques and auction houses began to show an insatiable craze for the figures. He has since produced over 100 varieties of toys, sold in limited editions for private collectors and an unlimited range of affordable toys for fans – a concept that recalls Keith Haring’s ‘Pop Shop’. KAWS has since collaborated with industry leaders like Dior, Nike, Unliqo, MTV and Kanye West.

KAWS’ work is often understood as a reflection on popular culture but a fundamentally human element is also eminent. Speaking of his process, KAWS stated ‘I think when I’m making work, it also often mirrors what’s going on with me at that time’. This sensitivity shows exceptionally true in sculptures like ‘Clean Slate’ (2014), which shows a parental figure gently carrying their offspring, a work inspired by the birth of his first daughter. It can also be sensed in ‘Passing Through’ (2010), which shows a seated figure covering his eyes in a moment of sudden realisation.

KAWS has created a complex oeuvre that draws elusive lines between entertainment, commercial design and ‘high’ art. He has been compared to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Haring for their similar career trajectories from street art to art gallery as well as their resulting idiosyncratic styles. In their polished flawlessness and popular playfulness, visual parallels have also been drawn with the works of Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons.

KAWS has not only been celebrated by the world of commercial design, but has also been lauded with exhibitions by major museums. His work can be found in permanent collections of Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Rosenblum Collection, Paris and the Brooklyn Museum.

PEANUTS

KAWS

A hallmark of KAWS’ work is his manipulation of and insertion of his aesthetic into cultural icons like Charles M. Schulz’ Peanuts characters. In 1995, KAWS famously graffitied his tag onto a MetLife billboard in his hometown in New Jersey, accompanying it with pictures of Snoopy flying a plane and Woodstock standing on his tail. Since then, KAWS has continued to appropriate the Peanuts characters across sculptures, paintings, prints and toys within his own abstract language.

Peanuts characters are a seemingly obvious subject for KAWS, having stated ‘Peanuts is part of being a kid in America…it’s sort of around everywhere’. Too, the characters are internationally recognised, establishing them as part of a universal visual language. KAWS appropriates their universality as a platform for viewers to recall their own memories of the characters but in a space divorced from their classic context and with slight alterations such as his signature crossed-out eyes.

The ease of identifying KAWS’ universal images is challenged in his series ‘MBF’ or ‘Man’s Best Friend’. These paintings and prints are monochrome forms sketched out using thick black or white lines. These forms are abstracted in a cartoon-like Cubism, incomplete and rendered in cropped frames. It is here that KAWS’ dual, seemingly contradictory, interests in popular imagery and abstraction come to a captivating head, toeing the line of almost complete abstraction while remaining nonetheless identifiable.

In 2015, in partnership with the acclaimed Pace Prints, KAWS produced a new series of Peanuts limited edition works for Art Basel in Miami. The characters of these prints, such as ‘No One’s Home’, are identified only by their outline, their internal forms rendered in abstract, popping colours and shapes. These works exhibit KAWS’ ongoing experimentations with universal visual language, testing how far he could push the balance between abstraction and legibility.

BFF

KAWS

In 2016, KAWS added BFF to his gang of characters which people his paintings, prints, sculptures and toys. First installed as an eight-metre tall, bright blue sculpture outside the Central Embassy in Bangkok, KAWS’ creature has since taken on new life, notably in the form of more outdoor sculptures and toys.

BFF maintains much of KAWS’ iconic style found in his other characters, such as the crossed-out eyes, gloved hands and oversized ears. The character stands tall, filling out a shape reminiscent of his character Accomplice. However, BFF maintains one distinct difference: it has fur. Rendering fur is an uncharacteristic choice of KAWS’ as he prefers to work with smooth surfaces.

KAWS’ decision to render BFF almost Elmo-like in his use of fur has much to do with the emotional nature of his figures. Speaking of BFF, KAWS stated ‘it’s not particularly sad, he’s really expressionless. But I think giving the fur texture gives it a certain vulnerability to it’. This emotional nature of KAWS’ character is perhaps emphasised by its name, which stands for ‘Best Friends Forever’, for the pure innocence of youth and lasting friendships.

Coinciding with the installation of ‘BFF’ in Bangkok, KAWS released 1,000 plush versions of the blue figure, which sold out almost immediately. Since then, KAWS has released more much sought-after versions of BFF in vinyl and as a plush toy, expanding their colours to pink and black. In 2018, KAWS produced, in collaboration with Dior, a pink version of BFF clad in a Dior suit for Paris Fashion Week.

CHUM

KAWS

KAWS’ oeuvre is largely defined by his invented characters, each of which reference existing cartoons or universally recognised images. Joining his own visual language with existing iconographies, KAWS directs viewers to question and reconsider their existing experiences and emotions toward the images. This remains true for one of his earliest characters, Chum.

Chum recalls the smiley Michelin Man, the mascot for the tyre company since 1894 and one of the world’s oldest trademarks. KAWS’ character is therefore instantly recognisable for an international audience, the distinct rolls of Chum undeniably borrowed from the mascot.

Chum replaces the widely grinning Michelin Man’s head with KAWS’ characteristic skull and cross bone head and crossed-out eyes. KAWS’ figure therefore becomes disjointed, with the top half denoting some sort of darkness and death while the bottom half reminiscent of the jovial mascot.

Chum is particularly intimidating in its pictorial forms, as paintings or prints. In works such as ‘CHUM (KCA1)’ (2012), the character covers the entirety of the canvas as it intimidatingly charges toward the viewer. This version of Chum reoccurs across KAWS’ work and first appeared as a sticker. KAWS derived the image from the logic of skating imagery, defined by condensed graphics.

Chum has naturally been converted into toys, produced in collaboration with a variety of Japanese toy makers. These vinyl toys range in colour from clear to yellow, pink, silver and white, always portraying Chum triumphantly standing upright, hands resting on its hips. Of the variations of KAWS’ Chum toys are the range of Kubrick versions, Japanese block-style figures which are produced in three scales, designated by 100%, 400% and 1,000%. These Chum toys push KAWS’ manipulation of the Michelin Man further, rendering the head in KAWS’ style, the stomach like the mascot and the legs like the Kubrick block.

COMPANION

KAWS

‘He’s approachable’, said KAWS about Companion, his first and most iconic character. ‘When I created him, I wanted him to have human sensibility’. Companion first appeared in KAWS’ street graffiti in the late 1990s before being converted into a toy in 1999, rendered in brown grey or black, an enduring colour range for the character. Perhaps his most relatable character in his repertoire, KAWS continues to rework Companion, alternating its position, colour, likeness and relationships to communicate human emotion.

Companion is largely described as an anthropomorphic Mickey Mouse-like character, an unsurprising resemblance considering KAWS’ previous career as an illustrator at Disney. Companion wears big shoes, gloves and is clothed in Mickey’s iconic shorts, with the two buttons on the front. KAWS’ macabre trademark appears in Companion’s use of an ‘X’ on his gloves and eyes, as well as the character’s skull and cross bone-shaped head.

Since its debut, KAWS has reworked Companion into new series, often beginning as large sculptural installations before being translated into toys. Notable examples include ‘Clean Slate’, a parental Companion holding another figure in its arms; ‘Passing Through’, a seated Companion with its hands over its eyes in embarrassment, made as a self-portrait of KAWS dealing with the implications of his fame; and ‘Small Lie’, a Pinocchio-like version of Companion, clad in the character’s iconic overalls and head bowing in a childlike shame.

In its diverse arrangements, Companion has come to be understood as a stand-in for KAWS, the artist himself stating, ‘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’.

SPONGEBOB

KAWS

KAWS’ visual language is dictated, in large part, by producing universally recognised images, often derived from cartoon imagery. It is therefore unsurprising that he continues to return to Spongebob, the jolly and laughter-filled character from Nickelodeon’s highest rated TV show, ‘Spongebob Squarepants’. As is true across KAWS’ oeuvre, Spongebob is a means to abstraction, a foundation for investigating deeper human emotions.

KAWS first produced ‘KAWSbob’, a version of Spongebob with KAWS’ characteristic crossed-out eyes, in 2008 for an exhibition curated by Pharrell Williams. Speaking of the character’s inception, KAWS stated, ‘I started doing SpongeBob paintings for Pharrell. Then I started doing smaller paintings, which got much more abstract. And SpongeBob was something I wanted to do because graphically I love the shapes’.

Spongebob’s rectangular body, prominent teeth, enlarged eyes, pointy nose and bright yellow colouring are his most instantly recognisable qualities which KAWS manipulates to abstract the character. Often, he zooms in on Spongebob’s face, denying the viewer of its entire shape or overlays the character with alternative colours. In doing so, KAWS abstracts familiar imagery in an unprecedented way. Speaking on his conception of abstract, KAWS questioned ‘if you look at something but then you know what it is, is it still abstraction? You just start looking at the gestures and how they work and thinking about the history of painting and how it can relate to that’.

Too, abstraction is found, even in the subtle alteration to Spongebob’s eyes. The use of an ‘X’ as eyes, which traditionally refers to death in cartoons, transforms this naïve and optimistic character into the site of something macabre and dark. ‘Even though I use a comic language, my figures are not always reflecting the idealistic cartoon view that I grew up on, where everything has a happy ending’.