The ‘Man's Best Friend' series by KAWS is a signed, numbered, and dated silkscreen print, one of the ten in the portfolio series created in 2016. The KAWS motif has become instantly recognizable with nostalgic cartoon characters transformed into near-abstract monochromatic enigmas. Known for his iconic characters with X’s on their eyes and gloves, KAWS delivers his classic dose of street-art meets contemporary art in this aesthetically minimalist work. In MBF, the beloved 'Snoopy' (KAWS playfully renamed him “Joe KAWS.”) and 'Charlie Brown' from the comic strip 'Peanuts' by Charles Schulz has been reimagined in sophisticated contemporary form. From 1950 until his death in 2005, Schulz’s cherished 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 / Steff Yotka from Vogue, 2017). The 'Man's Best Friend' VIII is sold as an individual print and comes with the Arton seal of approval for authenticity, quality, and exquisite condition.

KAWS, born in 1974, is a New-York based artist who first gained international attention by designing limited edition toys and clothing. He practiced his now iconic style as a young graffiti artist who chose his moniker, KAWS, and later said of his name, "when your whole art is based on the lettering you choose, you kinda figure out what ones work together. I just liked the shapes of the K, A, W, S". KAWS grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey. He studied at the School of Visual Arts, New York, graduating with a BFA in 1996. Upon graduating, he began working as an animator for Disney, contributing to films and TV shows including 101 Dalmatians, Daria, and Doug. His passion for graffiti art led him to the re-working of advertisements, ‘subvertising’ a counter-culture to the mainstream. Commercial advertisers, interested in the street culture and visual communication, liked his bold style and KAWS was asked to rework their advertisements on bus shelters and billboards around the city. From his start to present day, KAWS and commercialism have become inextricably intertwined. In 1999, KAWS designed his first toy for the Japanese company Bounty Hunter, a vinyl figure of rounded Mickey Mouse shape with x-ed out eyes, a motif which has now become a signature due to its popularity. KAWS has since been invited to collaborate with many other streetwear labels and designers, such as Nike, Uniqlo, Dior and Commes Des Garcons. In early 2019, his painting THE KAWS ALBUM (2005) sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong auction for a record-breaking $14.8 million. The piece is a take on The Simpsons The Yellow Album, which itself is an impression of the iconic cover sleeve for the 1967 Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, originally co-designed by artist Peter Blake (b. 1932). In THE KAWS ALBUM, each figure has been replaced with a character from his ‘Kimpsons’ series. KAWS is now recognized globally for his large-scale public art installations, which see his subversive cartoon characters inflated to gigantic proportions. Most notable among these installations was Holiday (2019) which floated in the Hong Kong harbor during Art Basel Hong Kong. KAWS is now an internationally recognized and multi-faceted artist with work that can be found in the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, the Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, and the Rosenblum Collection, Paris.