KAWS (b. 1974). Dissected Companion (Gray). Painted cast vinyl. Stamped “Medicom Toy 2006 China” on the underside of the right foot; stamped “c. KAWS..06” on the underside of the left foot. With original box.

Provenance: Private collection, Minnesota

Lot Essay: Equal parts adorable and terrifying, KAWS Companion is representative of KAWS simultaneously subversive and playful presence in the contemporary art world. Born Brian Donnelly in New Jersey in 1974, KAWS began his artistic career upon his move to New York City to study at the School of Visual Arts. He worked after graduation as a background painter for animated shows including Daria and Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, but he first gained recognition as a graffiti artist, tagging things around New York with the name KAWS, which he had originally chosen because he liked the way the letters looked together. Soon, he began adding his eye-popping cartoon characters to the graffiti, moving closer to his current style. In addition, he began working on what he called subvertising, creating mocking versions of existing ads.

In 1999, Donnelly was approached by Bounty Hunter, a hip Japanese streetwear brand, to create a toy. This led to the birth of his now-iconic character, Companion, an aggressive, streetwise Mickey Mouse in monochrome tones with cauliflower ears and x-ed out eyes. Immediately a huge commercial success, Companion has gone on to become a mainstay in KAWS art, in iterations as varied as an MTV Moonman Trophy and a giant inflatable floating on a lake. Companion and its origins are a testament to one of the most striking factors about KAWS work–his consistent refusal to work through traditional art market channels, preferring to mass market his work to the general public, blurring lines between art and industry.

This particular edition of Companion, the Dissected Companion, was produced in 2006 by Original Fake, KAWS long standing collaboration with the brand Medicom. This Companion is, as its name suggests, half dissected, revealing layers of disturbingly realistic muscle, organs, and bones under the cartoonish exterior. The resulting sculpture looks like what might happen if Victor Frankenstein were to get his hands on Mickey Mouse’s corpse. The Companion ends up as a half-completed form of a creature, dead and shambling, with one eye, exposed from under the skin, open and glaring at the viewer. As in his earlier subvertising work, KAWS calls into question what might be going on under the surface of slick corporate creations such as Mickey Mouse. In this particular Companion, KAWS takes the metaphor a step further, literally removing the layers that soften the commercial creature, revealing the working pieces underneath.

Height: 14 3/4 in x width: 6 1/4 in x depth: 4 in.