Keith Haring

KEITH HARING (Pennsylvania, 1958- New York, 1990).
"Pop Shop VI," 1989.
Silkscreen, issue H.C. 2/20.
Certified on the reverse by The Keith Haring Estate.
Provenance: Martin Lawrence Gallery.
Measurements: 37 x 40 cm, 58 x 65 cm (frame).

Inspired by the urban culture of New York City in the 1980s, Keith Haring brought pop art into the social and political arena, because unlike other pop artists, he was committed to the problems of minorities. The work we show, with its prototypical schematic figures grouped as if forming a single body and at the same time expressing supreme freedom, stands out for its fraternal and optimistic message. Bodies waving arms, dancing as if they were made of rubber, resolved with a thick stroke that separates blocks of color..., are aspects that converge in "Pop Shop VI" and that express his vitalist philosophy. Haring somehow refers to some kind of primitive purity by choosing a synthetic and preclassical stroke with which he sweeps away a false idea of progress. With his particular combination of influences and reinventions, the artist came up with a style of his own that would make him immortal. His cheerful figures with simple strokes revolutionized the art world.

Considered the figurehead of urban art in the 1980s, Haring's unstoppable professional career began with his work in the New York subway. The enormous popularity of Haring's urban work among the people of New York immediately caught the attention of the art establishment. Consequently, Andy Warhol adopted him into his circle, and the then emerging gallerist Tony Shafrazi organized a major solo exhibition for him in 1982 that was to be the launching pad for his unstoppable success. He soon exhibited his work at the gallery of the influential Leo Castelli and established himself as a professional art star. Today Haring's work is divided between major private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Bass Museum in Miami; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Ludwig Museum in Cologne; and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. He also created a wide variety of public works, including the infirmary at Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry, New Yorkand the second-floor men's room at Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in Manhattan, which was later transformed into an office and is known as the Keith Haring Room. In January 2019, an exhibition called "Keith Haring New York" opened at New York Law School in the main building of its Tribeca campus.