Commissioned by NIGO® in 2005, THE KAWS ALBUM is an appropriation of an appropriation – KAWS’s take on The Simpson’s The Yellow Album, which was itself a parody of The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In this historical ‘family portrait’, KAWS includes the whole host of his Kimpsons characters with their trademark sprouting puffy crossbones and X’ed eyes. In addition to these signature mutated characters, the portrait also features KAWS’s emblematic COMPANION memorialized in the form of a seated miniature figurine on the lower left. Released in 1967, The Beatles’ era-defining Sgt. Pepper album was lauded by critics for its bridging of popular music, high art and contemporary counterculture. THE KAWS ALBUM follows in its legendary footsteps in its bold straddling and uniting of genres, cultures and subcultures. Exemplifying KAWS’s formal agility as an artist, the piece is the most accomplished work on canvas the KAWS ever created. The rich and complex composition demonstrates the epitome of KAWS’s subversive wit, prescient vision and affectionate irreverence for our times, manifesting as an iconic apotheosis of KAWS’s entire artistic and cultural lexicon.