What does Mr. DOB stand for?

What Mr. DOB represents is largely a matter of personal interpretation. Takashi Murakami named the character after the Japanese word "dobojite," a slang form for the word "why." Shop a range of Takashi Murakami art from some of the world’s top sellers on 1stDibs.

Mr Dob

Louis Vuitton And Murakami Flower

Kaikai Kiki

Materials

Glass

Ulla-Stina Wikander"TV", needlepoint woman on horseback wrapped around vintage television with plug, 2024

$4,800

H 12 in W 13 in D 12 in

"TV", needlepoint woman on horseback wrapped around vintage television with plug

By Ulla-Stina Wikander

Located in Philadelphia, PA

"TV" is an original piece by Ulla-Stina Wikander is a free standing sculpture. This piece is made from sourcing vintage needlepoint embroidery featuring a woman on vintage television...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Thread, Found Objects, Textile

Boo Bed • Hand-Carved Dog Bed in Teak with Sheepskin Upholstery, by Odditi

$944Sale Price / item|20% Off

H 14.97 in Dm 35.44 in

Boo Bed • Hand-Carved Dog Bed in Teak with Sheepskin Upholstery, by Odditi

By Odditi

Located in CAROOL, NSW, AU

The Boo Bed is a contemporary architectural throne for your doggo. Upholstered in luxurious long haired sheepskin for your fur baby’s comfort. Featuring hand-carved details and made ...

Category

2010s Organic Modern Beds and Bed Frames

Materials

Sheepskin, Teak

$24,837Sale Price|20% Off

H 75 in W 15 in D 15 in

Chanel Petrol Pump

By Erik Salin

Located in Nottingham, GB

Original, life size mixed media sculpture. This colourful and exquisitely finished sculpture features the iconic Chanel logo on a life size petrol pump. This fantastic sculpture is...

Category

2010s Pop Art Still-life Sculptures

Materials

Mixed Media

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Mr Dob For Sale on 1stDibs

You are likely to find exactly the mr dob you’re looking for on 1stDibs, as there is a broad range for sale. You can easily find an example made in the Pop Art style, while we also have 2 Pop Art versions to choose from as well. On 1stDibs, the right mr dob is waiting for you and the choices span a range of colors that includes gray and beige. Artworks like these of any era or style can make for thoughtful decor in any space, but a selection from our variety of those made in paint, synthetic resin paint and vinyl paint can add an especially memorable touch. A large mr dob can prove too dominant for some spaces — a smaller mr dob, measuring 9.25 high and 9.26 wide, may better suit your needs.

How Much is a Mr Dob?

A mr dob can differ in price owing to various characteristics — the average selling price for items in our inventory is $3,875, while the lowest priced sells for $2,700 and the highest can go for as much as $9,500.

Takashi Murakami for sale on 1stDibs

Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami may be famous among collectors for the psychedelic flowers and chaotic cartoons that populate his prints and paintings, but artists likely know him as the theorist behind the contemporary art movement he calls “Superflat.”

Partially inspired by the Pop art of Andy Warhol, in which celebrity culture and mundane mass-produced items became the focus of bright and colorful works that both celebrated and criticized consumerism, Murakami’s Superflat encompasses painting, sculpture, digital design and more to present a subversive look at consumerism but is also an effort to blend fine art and lowbrow culture.

A multifaceted and remarkably influential artist as well as a compulsive art collector, Murakami has collaborated with brands such as Louis Vuitton, while one of his most famous Superflat works is the teddy bear on the cover of the Graduation album by American rapper Kanye West.

In 1993 Murakami earned his Ph.D. from Tokyo University of the Arts, where he was trained in nihonga, a style of painting that originated in the late 19th century by artists who worked to preserve and promote the conventions and processes associated with traditional Japanese art. While practicing nihonga, Murakami began to realize that his beliefs didn’t align with the tradition, so his art subsequently took on a satirical feel that embodied a critique of the movement. Before long, his style took a drastic turn, embracing otaku, a rising postwar cultural phenomenon among Japan’s younger crowd who loved anime and manga. (Otaku is also integral to Superflat.)

This is when Murakami’s most well-known character, Mr. DOB, was born. This anime-inspired icon, which Americans might interpret as a cross between Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat given its pronounced ears and broad and menacing grin, was part of the artist’s endeavor to elevate the otaku subculture but also to target mass consumerism. While Murakami conceived of Mr. DOB years ahead of his 2000-era Superflat theory, there is much common ground between the two. Not unlike his other creations, Murakami’s Mr. DOB is equal parts erotic, disturbing and cartoonish — an incisive mockery of the mingling of commerce and fine art so prevalent in Japanese popular culture.

Find original Takashi Murakami prints, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

A Close Look at Pop Art Art

Perhaps one of the most influential contemporary art movements, Pop art emerged in the 1950s. In stark contrast to traditional artistic practice, its practitioners drew on imagery from popular culture — comic books, advertising, product packaging and other commercial media — to create original Pop art paintings, prints and sculptures that celebrated ordinary life in the most literal way.

ORIGINS OF POP ART

Started in Britain in the 1950s, flourished in 1960s-era America
“This is Tomorrow,” at London's Whitechapel Gallery in 1956, was reportedly the first Pop art exhibition
A reaction to postwar mass consumerism
Transitioning away from Abstract Expressionism
Informed by neo-Dada and artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg; influenced postmodernism and Photorealism

CHARACTERISTICS OF POP ART

Bold imagery
Bright, vivid colors
Straightforward concepts
Engagement with popular culture
Incorporation of everyday objects from advertisements, cartoons, comic books and other popular mass media

POP ARTISTS TO KNOW

ORIGINAL POP ART ON 1STDIBS

The Pop art movement started in the United Kingdom as a reaction, both positive and critical, to the period’s consumerism. Its goal was to put popular culture on the same level as so-called high culture.

Richard Hamilton’s 1956 collage Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? is widely believed to have kickstarted this unconventional new style.

Pop art works are distinguished by their bold imagery, bright colors and seemingly commonplace subject matter. Practitioners sought to challenge the status quo, breaking with the perceived elitism of the previously dominant Abstract Expressionism and making statements about current events. Other key characteristics of Pop art include appropriation of imagery and techniques from popular and commercial culture; use of different media and formats; repetition in imagery and iconography; incorporation of mundane objects from advertisements, cartoons and other popular media; hard edges; and ironic and witty treatment of subject matter.

Although British artists launched the movement, they were soon overshadowed by their American counterparts. Pop art is perhaps most closely identified with American Pop artist Andy Warhol, whose clever appropriation of motifs and images helped to transform the artistic style into a lifestyle. Most of the best-known American artists associated with Pop art started in commercial art (Warhol made whimsical drawings as a hobby during his early years as a commercial illustrator), a background that helped them in merging high and popular culture.

Roy Lichtenstein was another prominent Pop artist that was active in the United States. Much like Warhol, Lichtenstein drew his subjects from print media, particularly comic strips, producing paintings and sculptures characterized by primary colors, bold outlines and halftone dots, elements appropriated from commercial printing. Recontextualizing a lowbrow image by importing it into a fine-art context was a trademark of his style. Neo-Pop artists like Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami further blurred the line between art and popular culture.

Pop art rose to prominence largely through the work of a handful of men creating works that were unemotional and distanced — in other words, stereotypically masculine. However, there were many important female Pop artists, such as Rosalyn Drexler, whose significant contributions to the movement are recognized today. Best known for her work as a playwright and novelist, Drexler also created paintings and collages embodying Pop art themes and stylistic features.

Read more about the history of Pop art and the style’s famous artists, and browse the collection of original Pop art paintings, prints, photography and other works for sale on 1stDibs.

Finding the Right Figurative-prints-works-on-paper for You

Bring energy and an array of welcome colors and textures into your space by decorating with figurative fine-art prints and works on paper.

Figurative art stands in contrast to abstract art, which is more expressive than representational. The oldest-known work of figurative art is a figurative painting — specifically, a rock painting of an animal made over 40,000 years ago in Borneo. This remnant of a remote past has long faded, but its depiction of a cattle-like creature in elegant ocher markings endures.

Since then, figurative art has evolved significantly as it continues to represent the world, including a breadth of works on paper, including printmaking. This includes woodcuts, which are a type of relief print with perennial popularity among collectors. The artist carves into a block and applies ink to the raised surface, which is then pressed onto paper. There are also planographic prints, which use metal plates, stones or other flat surfaces as their base. The artist will often draw on the surface with grease crayon and then apply ink to those markings. Lithographs are a common version of planographic prints.

Figurative art printmaking was especially popular during the height of the Pop art movement, and this kind of work can be seen in artist Andy Warhol’s extensive use of photographic silkscreen printing. Everyday objects, logos and scenes were given a unique twist, whether in the style of a comic strip or in the use of neon colors.

Explore an impressive collection of figurative art prints for sale on 1stDibs and read about how to arrange your wall art.