Death NYC
“Mao x Beatles Abbey Road x Louis Vuitton”
Signed Limited Edition 34/100

Mixed Media Print on Paper • 13″ x 18″
Hand-Signed & Dated 2022 in Pencil by Death NYC • Embossed Dry Stamp
Warhol-Style Mao Portrait x Beatles x Supreme LV Monogram x Dollar Bills
Ships Unframed in Protective Sleeve

What You Are Getting

A signed limited edition print (34/100) by the anonymous New York street artist Death NYC. This is one of the artist’s most densely layered compositions — a collision of four of the most iconic images of the twentieth century in a single frame. The dominant figure is a bold silhouette of Mao Zedong drawn from the official portrait that appeared in the Chairman’s “Little Red Book” during the Cultural Revolution — the same source image Andy Warhol appropriated for his legendary 1972 screenprint series that transformed a communist propaganda icon into Pop Art. A red star crowns the forehead. Superimposed across Mao’s face walks The Beatles’ Abbey Road crossing, with all four members dressed head-to-toe in Louis Vuitton monogram suits. The entire background is a collage of US dollar bills heavily overprinted in red, while the lower right quadrant fills with the Supreme x Louis Vuitton red monogram pattern (black LV logos on vivid red). A dripping “DEATH” graffiti tag stretches across the chin. Hand-signed in pencil by Death NYC at lower left, dated 2022, with embossed dry stamp and edition number 34/100 at lower right. Measuring 13″ x 18″, ships unframed in protective sleeve.

Print Details

About the Work

Start with the face. The portrait of Mao Zedong that dominates this composition is one of the most widely distributed images in human history. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Mao’s official photograph — the frontal portrait from the “Little Red Book” — was reproduced in the hundreds of millions: printed in books, hung in homes, displayed in every public space across China. It was, as Andy Warhol himself observed when he first encountered it, an image that already looked like a silkscreen. In 1972, following President Nixon’s historic visit to China, Warhol appropriated that portrait for what would become one of the defining series of twentieth-century art: 199 silkscreen paintings and a portfolio of 10 screenprints that transformed the face of communist power into Pop Art. Warhol applied his trademark flamboyant colors and expressionistic marks to Mao’s somber official portrait, drawing a devastating parallel between political propaganda and capitalist advertising. The series has since sold for as much as 7.5 million at auction (Sotheby’s, 2015). When Death NYC uses Mao’s silhouette, the piece arrives pre-loaded with all of that history.

Death NYC takes that face and fills it with The Beatles crossing Abbey Road. The four figures walk across Mao’s features in their famous single-file formation from Iain Macmillan’s 1969 photograph, but instead of the original outfits, each Beatle wears a suit covered in the Louis Vuitton monogram pattern. The effect is a triple collision of twentieth-century iconography: communist political power, the British Invasion, and French luxury branding — layered on top of one another like a screen-printed archaeology of modern fame. The Beatles, who were themselves transformed from musicians into global symbols, now walk across the face of a political figure who banned Western music, dressed in the livery of a luxury house that represents everything Mao’s revolution sought to destroy.

That irony is the engine of the piece. Mao’s Cultural Revolution explicitly targeted Western cultural influence — rock music, fashion, individualism, consumer goods — as bourgeois corruption to be eradicated. The Beatles were banned in China. Louis Vuitton handbags would have been confiscated and destroyed. And yet here they are, walking across his face in monogrammed suits, surrounded by US dollar bills overprinted in red. The currency is fragmented, repeated, tiled — visible enough to identify as money, distorted enough to feel like wallpaper. The red tint makes the dollars look both communist and bloodied, collapsing the distance between American capitalism and Chinese state ideology into a single visual texture.

The lower right quadrant drives the point home with the Supreme x Louis Vuitton red monogram — the pattern from the landmark 2017 collaboration between the Parisian luxury house and the New York streetwear brand. That partnership was itself a cultural event with a backstory that mirrors the themes of this print: in 2000, Louis Vuitton sent Supreme a cease-and-desist for bootlegging their monogram on skate decks. Seventeen years later, creative director Kim Jones brought them together for an official collaboration that merged high fashion and street culture in what became one of the most hyped collections in fashion history. Death NYC places that red-on-black pattern directly beneath Mao’s chin, completing a visual equation: political propaganda becomes Pop Art becomes counterculture becomes luxury commerce becomes street art. Each layer appropriates the one before it. The cycle is the subject.

The dripping “DEATH” graffiti tag across the jaw is both signature and statement — the artist’s mark rendered in the same language as the street art tradition from which the work emerges. It sits at the intersection of Mao’s face and the LV monogram, a reminder that the artist, too, is operating within the system being critiqued. Warhol said of his Mao series: “Since fashion is art now and Chinese is in fashion, I could make a lot of money.” Death NYC takes that observation and literalizes it: the fashion is on the Beatles, the money is the background, and the art is a print you can buy on eBay. The circle completes itself.

About the Artist

Death NYC (b. 1979, New York City) is an anonymous street artist whose pseudonym stands for “Don’t Easily Abandon The Hope.” Raised in New York amid a vibrant mix of cultures, Death NYC began creating on the walls and floors of popular retail spaces in SoHo and Chelsea, blending street art with the commercial environment of the city. Over more than two decades of active practice, the artist has developed a signature style that collides pop culture icons, luxury fashion branding, art historical references, and biting social commentary into single compositions.

Death NYC’s work frequently features figures like Marilyn Monroe, Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, and Kate Moss juxtaposed with motifs from Warhol, Koons, Murakami, Kusama, and the Old Masters — all wrapped in the logos of Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Hermes. The result is a body of work that critiques consumerism, celebrity worship, and the art market itself, while remaining visually seductive enough to operate within it. Living between New York and Hong Kong, Death NYC’s work has been auctioned internationally through houses including DEWIT Auctions, Louiza Auktion, and Theodore Bruce. The artist’s limited edition prints, original works on dollar bills, and unique spray-paint-and-stencil pieces are authenticated with a distinctive embossed dry stamp and accompanied by certificates of authenticity.

What Is Included

• Death NYC “Mao x Beatles x LV” Limited Edition 34/100 — signed mixed media print on paper, 13″ x 18″
• Hand-signed in pencil by Death NYC with 2022 date inscription
• Embossed dry stamp by the artist (visible at lower left)
• Ships unframed in protective sleeve with rigid backing and reinforced packaging

Shipping

Ships flat via UPS in protective sleeve with rigid backing, cardboard stiffener, and reinforced packaging. Tracking included, fully insured. International buyers welcome — customs fees may apply upon delivery.

Questions? Message us anytime — happy to provide additional photos or details.