Entitled Man’s Best Friend, the present lot is a monumental set of 10 black and white screenprints which playfully depict Snoopy, an American Beagle and companion to Charlie Brown in the comic strip Peanuts created by Charles Schulz. However, KAWS’ Snoopy has been playfully renamed by the artist, now known as “Joe KAWS.” From 1950 until his death in 2005, Schulz’s beloved characters appeared in international and national newspapers every day, deeply rooting themselves in generations of globally diverse viewers. KAWS explains, “I’m into Schulz as an artist, a company, and an icon; I got into his stuff just because I liked the looseness of the line work, and I thought that it was just sort of a nice thing to bring into my paintings, even if it’s abstract and unidentifiable” (KAWS in Steff Yotka, “Inside KAWS’s Studio With the Artist—And His Snoopy for Uniqlo Toys,” Vogue, April 27, 2017).

By extracting minimalist, detailed crops of Charlie Brown, KAWS has left just a hint of the persona being portrayed, yet even with just a dissociated portion the viewer is able to immediately recognize this iconic canine. As the artist comments, “[I] found it weird how infused a cartoon could become in people's lives; the impact it could have, compared to regular politics” (KAWS in Healy & Murray, "Graffiti Artist Turned Gallery Artist Turned Art Toy Maker, KAWS," Pop, February 2007, pp. 260-265). KAWS’ simplistic yet bold images playfully and inventively rework quintessential cartoon imagery while touching on the viewer’s personal, childhood relationship to the ensemble of friendly cartoon faces.