KAWS in colors and figures. Part 1
ARTinvestment.RU   08 мая 2020

Marketing and price indices of the most recognizable contemporary artist of our time

6 may 2020 the British company ArtTactic, one of the main analysts of the art market, has released a a report about the artist whose work became the symbol of unification and support of people in the art world today and are cited perhaps more than any other. Talking about the American Brian Donnelly (Brian Donnelly; rod. 1974), known in professional circles under the name KAWS. However, accurately guessing the style, delicate and playful humor, showing the interaction between consumption and cultural value, made KAWS one of the most significant artists of his generation even before the start of the pandemic COVID-19. One of the secrets of its success is in communication with a mass audience outside of museums and galleries which regularly exhibit his work: a large-scale sculpture, painting, street art, murals and industrial design.

AI analyzed the report in the first part of the article tells about the exhibition and marketing activity of the artist.

KAWS began his career as a street graffiti artist in Jersey-Сити and moved to new-Йорк in the early 1990-х years to get professional education. According to Donnelly, he chose the pseudonym KAWS, because he liked the graphic combination of letters. In 1999, together with Japanese toy brand and street wear Bounty Hunter, was created by toy Companion (with eng. — companion, companion). Stylized technogenic culture disney Mickey-Маус instantly became a popular and continuously used by the artist in the future. Since then, KAWS produces toys and apparel in collaboration with many famous companies such as Nike, Uniqlo and Comme des garçons, for each case stylizing famous characters from cartoons or trademarks of famous companies.

Personal exhibition KAWS 2008 Saturated (with eng. — saturated) marked the beginning of an eleven-year partnership with gallery Perrotin. In addition to holding ten personal exhibitions within the walls of his gallery, Perrotin actively helped the artist to present the work in Museum institutions and public spaces. So, in 2018, the KAWS presented his largest to date, the sculptural work of — inflatable Companion with a length of 37 meters under the name KAWS: Holiday (eng. — holiday), created for a traveling exhibition. The floating installation was shown in Seoul, Hong Kong, Taipei, VA-Бич, Doha and at the foot of mount Fuji. In 2020, the national gallery of Victoria in Melbourne has presented the largest retrospective of the artist entitled "KAWS: the Competition in the era of solitude", covering his work for twenty-five years.

In 2020 KAWS had solo or group exhibitions from-за measures for social distancing. Despite this, KAWS at-прежнему to present their work at the international level through Expanded Holiday, an exhibition of augmented reality, where the characters-компаньоны represented in digital form through mobile devices around the world. An artist profile in Instagram currently has over 4 thousand images, and 2.9 million subscribers.

Brian Donnelly born in 1974 in Jersey-Сити, the state of new-Джерси (USA).

career highlights KAWS

1996

• he Received the degree of bachelorof arts in illustration at the School of visual arts (new-Йорк).

• Began work as a freelance animator for Walt Disney Studio.

1998

• he Received the Pernod Liquid Art award.

1999

• Cooperation with the brand Bounty Hunter to produce the first vinyl figure Companion.

• the First commercial solo exhibition in the concept-бутике Colette (Paris).

2002

• he Founded his own company Original Fake.

• the First non-commercial solo exhibition at the MU Art Foundation (Eindhoven).

2003

• First commercial solo exhibition in Asia: Original Fake BAPE Gallery (Tokyo).

2004

• the Project "the Undefeated Billboard" (VOC-Анджелес) in collaboration with the brand Undeated, Director and artist Aaron rose and Nike.

• the traveling group show Beautiful Losers ("Beautiful losers"), seven museums and foundations in the U.S. and Europe.

2006

• Launching your own fashion brand and store Original Fake, in partnership with Medicom Toy (Tokyo).

2008

• Beginning of cooperation with the gallery Perrotin (Paris, new-Йорк, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai).

• First solo show Saturated ("Saturated") with Perrotin gallery, Miami (curated by — is a music producer Pharrell Williams).

2010

• the First large non-commercial solo exhibition at the Museum of contemporary art, Aldrich, Ridgefield.

• Represents my first sculpture in the open air in collaboration with the Hong Kong Harbor-Сити. 5-метровый companion ("Passing") was the largest sculpture by KAWS in the material.

2011

• Solo exhibition KAWS: Focus at the Museum of modern art in Fort-Уэрте (USA).

2014

• Is 7-метровую the Companion sculpture in the Harbor of Hong Kong.

• the bottle design for the fragrance Girl by Comme des Garçons and Pharrell Williams.

2015

• Companion with a height of 7 meters moved to the Shanghai times-сквер.

• Solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, new-Йорк.

2016

• Personal exhibition in the sculpture Park Yorkshire.

• Collaborates with the clothing shop Uniqlo for the production of inexpensive clothing and accessories.

• Submitted 8-метровую sculpture Companion at the Central Embassy in Bangkok.

• 433 000 subscribers in Instagram.

2017

• Solo exhibition at the contemporary art Museum St.-Луиса.

• Collaborates with the clothing store Uniqlo and the Peanuts comic strip, therefore, produces a line of apparel and fashion accessories.

• 609 000 subscribers in Instagram.

2018

• Install two 8-метровых sculptures in a shopping Mall in Changsha (China, the first permanent public sculpture in the country).

• the End of the contract with the gallery Perrotin, the beginning of cooperation with the gallery Skarstedt (new-Йорк, London).

• Group show "Approaching the figure" and the first exhibition with Skarstedt (new-Йорк).

• Holiday, 36-метровый inflatable companion, the greatest sculpture of the artist to date, installed floating on lake Nekocon in Seoul.

• First solo exhibition with Skarstedt (new-Йорк).

• the Prices of auction sales first exceed $500 thousand in March at Phillips (London).

• the Prices of auction sales for the first time exceed $1 million in November at Sotheby's (London).

• 1 000 000 subscribers in Instagram.

2019

• Public exhibition in Taipei, Hong Kong, Fuji, Doha and Virginia-Бич.

•Solo exhibition at the Museum of contemporary art in Detroit (USA).

• the Current record auction price — $12.7 million for the painting "the Album KAWS" (2005), sold at Sotheby's (Hong Kong).

• a Solo exhibition and retrospective at the National gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (Australia).

• First solo exhibition with Skarstedt (London).

• the Highest market capitalization of auction sales for the year $88,1 million

• 1 700 000 subscribers in Instagram.

2020

• Run application Expanded Holiday in augmented reality technology.

• 2 900 000 subscribers in Instagram.

Analysis of exhibition activity:

From 1999 to 2020 of the work of KAWS was presented in 123 exhibitions, of which 56 (46 %) were in commercial premises, 51 (41 %) — in museums, and 16 (13 %) — in public spaces. 49 exhibitions were held in galleries or non-profit funds, 12 — in state museums. In recent years the exhibition history of the KAWS was inhomogeneous: the average of 9 exhibitions a year (2011-2016, including 12 exhibitions in 2014), up to 6 exhibitions (2017-2018). The number of exhibitions increased dramatically in 2019 (14 exhibitions: 11 personal and 3 group), including due to Holiday traveling exhibition that includes six different locations. In General the proportions of the exhibition activities solo exhibitions accounted for 51 % of the total number of exhibitions since 1999 (63 exhibition). 36 % of the exhibitions in 2019 took place in museums (5 exhibitions, 4 of them solo). Information about the fate of the transferred exhibitions KAWS in 2020 yet.

Museums and non-profit foundations organized and held 41% of the KAWS exhibitions (group 25 and 26 solo). 59% of the Museum exhibitions of the artist passed in the US (30 per show) and 33% in Western Europe (17 shows). The greatest number of exhibitions made the Museum of modern art in Fort-Уэрте, TX (4 shows), the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine arts, Philadelphia (3), Art Museum of Atlanta (2), and the Museum of contemporary art, Aldrich (2). The work of KAWS was presented on only one Biennale — ArtZuid 2015 in Amsterdam, where a sculpture near the Rijksmuseum. Overall, since 2010, the artist's sculptures were displayed in public spaces 12.

a Leader in the commercial exhibition was the gallery Perrotin: over 11 years of cooperation, from 2008 to 2018, held 10 solo exhibitions KAWS. Skarstedt gallery, which the artist signed a contract in 2018, over the next two seasons held 5 exhibitions in London and new-Йорке. The rights of non-exclusive cooperation were 3 of the exhibition KAWS at the Honor Fraser gallery (Los-Анджелес) and 2 exhibitions at gallery Javier Lopez (Madrid).

the work of KAWS is included in many major public and private collections internationally, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of modern art in Fort-Уэрте, Museum of contemporary art San-Диего Museum of art in Columbus (all — USA). Major private museums and foundations, owns his works — collection Poju and Anita of Zabludowicz (London), collection Rosenblum (Paris) and a collection of Dakis the Joanna (Athens).

Among the private collectors who purchased the work of KAWS in recent years, — Rafael Geismar (restaurateur, investor in modern technology from Hong Kong, the buyer of many works of the artist for record prices at auctions), Larry Warsh (American publisher, sole owner of the largest private collection of works by KAWS),Leo Malka (art-дилер, the founder of the online art-отелей in Turin and Ibiza) and Jose Mughrabi (Israeli businessman who has an investment business in new-Йорке). Note that Wars, Malka and Mughrabi known as serious collectors of the works of pioneer street-арта Jean-Мишеля Basquiat (and Jose Mugrabi owns one of the largest private collections of Andy Warhol).

the General result

KAWS — one of the few artists of interest which unites several generations of collectors around the world. All this — due to a combination of cooperation with brands, strong institutional (Museum) and commercial (gallery) support public art projects and a rapidly growing auction market. KAWS opened up the market of traditional art (painting and sculpture) for a new generation and type of collectors, offering buyers different "entry points" from toys for $500 to paintings sold for millions. Note that the boom in the public market in 2019 occurred in parallel to a dramatic increase in exhibition activity, which has doubled (from seven to fourteen exhibitions), compared to 2018.

the approach KAWS and its management to career promotion of the artist deserves a special attention by a number of factors:

• the artist's name in the title of the exhibition: each exhibition or project contains the name "KAWS" and the colon that increases brand awareness;

• the primary audience has been found by the artist on the fashion market — at the end of 2010-х relatively free of intersections with contemporary art segment;

• excellent orientation to the markets of Asia, for whom the culture of the game character has a special meaning;

• the curators of the first exhibition KAWS were either top-персоны (recently deceased, Germano Celant), or a fundamentally new the names of musical or movie-сферы (resulting in the intersection of audiences);

• collaboration with top-галереей Perrotin for 11 years did not prevent KAWS to change it to another gallery — with little fixed geography of spaces, but actively developing modern technologies;

• use of public spaces and large-scale figures, giving access to an audience outside the Museum;

• to create an academic portfolio KAWS did not hesitate to start with small regional museums in the United States;

• in all his creative work is a defining word is "ownership" — from the names of the characters to follow the public mood, whereby the artist becomes closer and clearer to the audience. And by "implicated audience" to "buying followers" is one marketing move.

the second part of the article we will talk about auction sales KAWS.

Denys Belkevych, AI