KAWS Passing Through Companion Vinyl Figure (2013) Black

The KAWS Passing Through Companion Vinyl Figure from 2013 in Black is a large-scale vinyl collectible from Brian Donnelly, the artist known as KAWS, depicting the Companion character in the Passing Through pose where the figure stands with its hands covering its eyes in the characteristic gesture that has become one of the most recognized and most emotionally resonant poses in KAWS's visual vocabulary, rendered in all-black vinyl at a scale that makes it one of the most commanding display pieces in the artist's collectible production catalog. The Companion is KAWS's primary recurring character, introduced in the late 1990s as a skeletally simplified figure with X-marked eyes and Mickey Mouse-adjacent proportions that the artist has deployed across multiple scales, materials, colorways, and poses since its creation, with the Companion becoming one of the most commercially significant and most critically recognized characters in contemporary art's intersection with street culture, fashion, and collectible production. The Passing Through pose specifically carries an emotional weight distinct from other Companion poses, with the hands-over-eyes gesture suggesting introspection, overwhelm, or the act of blocking out external stimulation in a way that invites viewers to project their own emotional experiences onto the figure, making it one of the most psychologically resonant and most widely reproduced Companion poses in the KAWS catalog alongside the Resting Place, the Open edition Companion, and the holiday seasonal figures. The 2013 release date places this figure within the period of KAWS's significant market and cultural expansion from his origins as a graffiti artist and toy designer in the late 1990s through his emergence as one of the highest-selling and most globally recognized artists in the contemporary art market, with 2013 being a year in which KAWS's vinyl figures commanded significant secondary market attention as collectors recognized the artist's trajectory toward major institutional exhibitions and auction house appearances that would substantially increase the value and cultural recognition of his earlier limited-edition production. At $350 retail the Black Passing Through Companion was released May 8, 2013 through KAWS's production partner at the time, with the all-black colorway being the most graphically minimal and most sculptural expression of the Passing Through pose by eliminating color contrast and emphasizing the form through a single consistent material surface. The KAWS Passing Through Companion Vinyl Figure 2013 Black was released on May 8, 2013 with a retail price of $350.