Name: The News IX
Brand: KAWS
Rating: 4.9 (183 reviews)

Meaning & Analysis

The News IX is a signed screen print in colours produced by the critically acclaimed American artist and designer, KAWS in 2017. The circular print depicts a close-up portion of a cartoon character’s face. Rendered in a dynamic variety of bright colours, the incorporation of squiggly lines makes it difficult for the viewer to discern the cartoon face being depicted.

Read more about KAWS Prints & Editions

The print is part of The News collection, which is composed of nine screen prints. All the prints in this collection experiment with abstraction and isolation through the use of the close-up. The collection is more abstract that many of the artist’s other collections but nonetheless resonates with the Blame Game collection, produced in 2014, which similarly depicts close-up sections of cartoon characters.

The News IX showcases KAWS’ unique artistic style which favours bold, gestural lines, an emphasis on colour, and distinctive graphics, such as the repeated use of crosses as is seen in this print. KAWS’ style can be traced back to his time spent spray painting buildings in New Jersey, where the artist grew up. The artist continued to develop his graffiti skills in New York in the 1990s, and it was through graffiti and the distinct style that this medium helped him develop that the artist gained notoriety in the art world.