Keith Haring
Keith Haring Subway Drawings 1983 (exhibition catalog)
1983

About the Item

Keith Haring New York City Subway Drawings, 1983: Rare early exhibition catalog/pamphlet illustrated by Keith Haring on the occasion of: "Keith Haring / New-York City Subway Drawings 1983"; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut: June 5-August 7, 1983. An exhibition surveying Keith Haring’s early subway drawings featuring photographs by Tseng Kwong Chi. Features a rare & striking blue fold-out insert featuring 4 illustrations (double-sided with 2 on each side). Offset printed; 6 pages (3 double-sided pages). 8.5 x 5.5 inches folded closed (opening to larger). Very good overall vintage condition. Features hole punches as originally issued by museum. Very well-preserved. Text by Andrea Miller-Keller. Includes an exhibition checklist, a selected exhibition history and bibliography. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. Rare. Keith Haring was an American artist and social activist known for his illustrative depictions of figures and symbols. His white chalk drawings could often been found on the blank poster marquees in New York’s public spaces and subways. “I don't think art is propaganda,” he once stated. “It should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.” Born on May 4, 1958 in Reading, PA, he grew up in neighboring Kutztown, where he was inspired to draw from an early age by Walt Disney cartoons and his father who was an amateur cartoonist. Haring moved to New York in the late 1970s to attend the School of Visual Arts, and soon immersed himself in the city’s graffiti culture. By the mid-1980s, he had befriended fellow artists Andy Warhol, Kenny Scharf, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and collaborated with celebrities like the singer Grace Jones. Diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1988, Haring’s prodigious career was brief, and he died of AIDS-related complications on February 16, 1990 at the age of 31. Before his death, Haring established the Keith Haring Foundation, a non-profit committed to raising awareness of the illness through art programing and community outreach. Throughout his career, Haring made his art widely available through the location of his murals, as well as through the Pop Shop—Haring's own storefront which he used to sell his memorabilia.The artist’s mural Crack is Wack (1986), can still be seen today on a retaining wall along FDR Drive in Manhattan. Haring’s works can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Related Categories: Keith Haring posters. Vintage Keith Haring. Keith Haring prints. Keith Haring Tseng Kwong Chi. Keith Haring subway. Keith Haring Graffiti.

Creator:
Keith Haring (1958-1990, American)
Creation Year:
1983
Dimensions:
Height: 8.5 in (21.59 cm)Width: 5.5 in (13.97 cm)
Medium:
Lithograph,Offset
Movement & Style:
Pop Art
Period:
1980-1989
Condition:
Gallery Location:
NEW YORK, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU354310069272
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