Man’s Best Friend 8
Man’s Best Friend 8
Signed Print
KAWS
POA
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Screenprint, 2016
Signed Print Edition of 100
H 89cm x W 59cm
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Meaning & Analysis
Man’s Best Friend 8 is a signed screen print on Saunders Waterford High White paper made by renowned American artist and designer, KAWS in 2016. The print comes in an edition size of 100 and depicts Snoopy the dog, the much-loved cartoon character from the Peanuts comic strip. Rendered using thick black lines in a sketch-like style against a white background, the close-up image and loose, expressionist style leads to a new way of looking at the famous cartoon.
Man’s Best Friend 8 is one of 10 screen prints that compose the Man’s Best Friend collection in which KAWS presents an evolution of a much-loved cartoon character, bringing it to contemporary audiences in a new and daring form. KAWS is known for his experimentation with iconic cartoon characters. The artist has appropriated well-known cartoons, such as The Simpsons, SpongeBob Square Pants and Astro Boy. As well as appropriating and adapting already known cartoons, KAWS has also created a stock of his own cartoon characters, such as Companion, Chum, Accomplice and Bendy.
KAWS’ interest in cartoons can be traced back to his time in New York studying illustration at the School of Visual Arts, as well as his early career as a freelance animator for popular animation series such as Daria and Doug. The artist also took to the streets, practising graffiti. Street art and graffiti culture clearly influenced KAWS and has led the artist to be compared to Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, two leading 20th century artists who emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s.
