KAWS — What Party For Sale

What Party is a 2020 screenprint by KAWS, released in seven colourways — Blue, Grey, Pink, Light Pink, Orange, Red and Yellow — each in an edition of 100 plus 20 artist's proofs. Printed on Saunders Waterford 425gsm Hi-White paper at 22 x 22 inches, every impression is hand-signed, dated and numbered by the artist in pencil. The print depicts Chum, one of KAWS's recurring characters, whose rounded, segmented form is loosely derived from Bibendum — better known as the Michelin Man — reimagined here through KAWS's signature cartoon-influenced line and flat colour fields.

The print's release coincided with a set of five Companion figures issued in black, white, pink, yellow and orange colourways, extending the same character language across sculpture and print in a single, coordinated drop. What Party's title took on further significance the following year, when it was borrowed for KAWS: WHAT PARTY, the artist's major 2021 retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, on view from February 26 to September 5, 2021. The exhibition was the first survey of KAWS's career presented by a New York institution, spanning more than one hundred works and tracing his development from graffiti-era street drawings through to large-scale sculpture.

As both a standalone print and the namesake of a landmark museum survey, What Party captures a pivotal moment in KAWS's transition from street-level practice to institutional recognition.