During the 1980s, Keith Haring used the New York City subway stations as his canvas, seeking out blank advertising spaces and covering them with what would soon become his iconic subway drawings. Haring was determined to create accessible art for all, and these drawings quickly transformed the city for millions during their daily commute in the vast underground system of New York.
This November in New York, Sotheby’s will present Art in Transit: 31 Keith Haring Subway Drawings from the Collection of Larry Warsh, a group of 31 subway drawings created by Haring between 1980-85, which will all appear at auction for the first time. They all come from the personal collection of Larry Warsh, renowned Haring collector and publisher who stewarded these 31 works for a nearly 40-year period, building the most exceptional and extensive collection of subway drawings in private hands. In 2012, the complete suite of 31 subway drawings was displayed in the critically acclaimed Brooklyn Museum exhibition Keith Haring: 1978-1982, marking the last occasion the group was exhibited together. These works were later published in Keith Haring: 31 Subway Drawings, in partnership with the Keith Haring Foundation. Now, this superb offering will highlight Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Sale on November 21 with a combined estimate of $6.3-9 million.
These works will come to life once again in a special immersive exhibition at Sotheby’s, which will re-create the 1980s New York City subway, transporting visitors back to the very moment when Haring created these historic drawings, which debuted his iconic visual vocabulary. We look forward to sharing these incredible drawings with all, and to introducing them to a new generation who will experience his genius for the very first time.
– Kathleen Hart, Head of Session, Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auction in New York
Haring’s drawings will go on public view in a special, immersive exhibition in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries from 8th – 20th November, created in collaboration with Samsung. The design of the exhibition will replicate a vintage 1980s New York City subway station complete with details like turnstiles and benches. The space will also leverage cutting-edge Samsung technology – including the Samsung Neo QLED 8K and The Premiere 9 triple laser projector – to bring to life archival footage of Keith Haring creating his drawings to create the experience of viewing the works “in-situ” as when they were first created more than four decades ago.
I remember noticing a panel in the Times Square station and immediately going aboveground and buying chalk. After the first drawing things just fell into place. I began drawing on the subways as a hobby on my way to work. I had to ride the subways often and would do a drawing while waiting for a train.
Keith Haring
Haring initially began drawing in the subway to occupy his time while commuting. After noticing that the Metropolitan Transit Authority covered unpaid advertisements with black matte paper, he quickly began scrawling his inventive visual language on top of them in white chalk. Over five years, this became a daily, repetitive occupation for Haring, riding the subway and looking for empty spaces to leave his mark — imbued with spontaneity before hopping on the next train. He brought thousands of black panels to life with his energetic mark-making and established an inventory of iconic images along the way. Commonly referred to as the “Chalkman” in the early days, Haring’s drawings were initially simple, with variations on the flying saucer theme and the radiating baby – motifs that were engineered at his seminal creative haunt, Club 57. Following the surprising discovery that his first round of subway drawings, created in late December 1980, remained mainly intact weeks after execution, Haring’s gesture became further energized and confident. Fervently drawing radiant babies, barking dogs, flying saucers, angels, pyramids, and smiley faces, Haring would create nearly thirty or forty drawings in a three-hour shift, without the possibility of erasure or editing.
Haring worked in front of crowds of fans – and occasionally in front of the New York City police, who ticketed and even arrested him for vandalism: “I have been caught many times. Some cops have given me a $10.00 ticket, some have handcuffed me and taken me in. By the time they let me go, most of them tell me they like the drawing, but they’re just doing their job.”
Haring’s subway drawings served as the blueprint for his widely lauded figurative aesthetic. In 1982, Haring signed with legendary art dealer Tony Shafrazi, and staged his first solo exhibition in the same year. Despite achieving meteoric critical acclaim, Haring steadfastly continued creating subway drawings – perhaps a reflection of his unrelenting commitment to communicate with the widest public audience possible. Haring once wrote: “I have been drawing in the subway for three years now, and although my career aboveground career has skyrocketed, the subway is still my favorite place to draw.”
Art is for everybody. It was the overarching idea for this five-year long project. Instead of people going to museums or galleries, he was going to do the opposite. And he was going to bring the art to them to make it accessible.
Gil Vazquez, Executive Director of the Keith Haring Foundation
Collection Highlights
Untitled (Still Alive in ’85) is among the final iterations of subway drawings Haring ever created (est. $500-700,000). A political commentary on President Ronald Reagan’s re-election his policies on militarism and inequality, Haring’s signature motifs are captured in Untitled (Still Alive in ’85), including crawling baby, ‘dancing figures’, ‘TV’, angels, spirits, and ‘barking dog’, all prevailing over his concerns on the limitations of capitalism and corruption of politics. The drawing has been featured in many prominent exhibitions, including: Allegories of Modernism: Contemporary Drawing at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1995); Keith Haring Journey of the Radiant Baby at Reading Public Museum, Pennsylvania (2006), and Keith Haring: The Political Line, which travelled to the Musee d’Art moderne de la Ville in Paris before being show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstifung in Rotterdam (2013-2016).
Untitled (Boombox Head) reflects the raw energy Haring drew from the urban environment in which he created his iconic drawings (est. $400-600,000). Executed in 1984, Haring’s dancing figure signals the convergence of artistic inspiration and the influence of hip-hop music during this period. The work shares the same robust exhibition as Untitled (Still Alive in ’85) (noted above), and was also included in Keith Haring Jean-Michel Basquiat | Crossing Lines, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2019-2020).
A dynamic composition with a two-part narrative, Untitled (Mermaid – Angel, Dolphins, Angels, Barking Dogs) created c. 1981-83, features a number of Haring’s key motifs: barking dogs, angels, fire, dolphins and mermaids (est. $500-700,000). The work was notably included in the celebrated exhibition, Future Primeval at Illinois State University’s Queens Museum and Tampa Museum of Art (1990-1991), as well as The Keith Haring Show at the Fondazione Triennale di Milano (2005-2006).
About the artist
Born to humble origins in Pennsylvania, Haring’s father Allen was an amateur cartoonist. Instead of encouraging Keith to copy existing cartoon characters, according to Keith, his father “wanted me to invent my own characters.” Haring’s aptitude for drawing led to his scholarship at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he studied semiotics.
Best known for striking graffiti-inspired drawings that took him from New York City’s streets and clubs to museums and public spaces around the world, Haring created a singular graphic style, filling his compositions with signature images such as dancing figures, radiant babies, barking dogs and flying saucers, and infusing them with uncommon energy and optimism.
The artist achieved international recognition, notably with his inclusion in the 1983 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and participated in numerous group and solo shows and producing more than 50 public artworks from New York to Paris. By expressing universal concepts of birth, death, love, and war, Haring created a lasting imagery that has been embraced around the world.
The inclusion of the subway drawings in several critically acclaimed exhibitions in partnership with the Keith Haring Foundation has provided the vital contextualization for this series and an exceedingly distinguished and rare body of work.
Art in Transit: 31 Keith Haring Subway Drawings from the Collection of Larry Warsh, at
Sotheby’s New York
To be Shown in an Immersive Exhibition, Ahead of their Auction Debut in Contemporary Day Sale this November 21st.