Keith Haring

Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
Private Collection, New York
Sotheby's, New York, May 13, 2009, lot 396
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

New York, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Keith Haring, October - November 1982, p. 98, illustrated
New York, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Keith Haring. A Memorial Exhibition: Early Works on Paper, May - June 1990, pp. 40-41, illustrated
New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art; Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario; Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art; San Francisco, Museum of Modern Art; Montreal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Keith Haring Retrospective, June 1997 - January 1999, pp. 18 and 106-109, illustrated

Keith Haring, Keith Haring Journals, New York, 1996, pp. 4-5, illustrated

This work is in very good condition overall. There are artist's pinholes on the four corners of each sheet with light evidence of handling at the edges. Each sheet exhibits a slight undulation along with light drying cracks in the areas of heavier ink application. The left image (in the catalogue illustration) exhibits four brown accretions measuring approximately 1/8 of an inch located 13 inches from the right edge along the top edge. The sheet second to the left in the catalogue illustration has a 1 ½ inch abrasion located 5 inches from the left edge along the top edge. This sheet exhibits a few pinpoint accretions located 10 ½ inches from the right edge along the bottom edge. The sheets are hinged to the mattes at the four corners and in the middle of the top and bottom edges verso. Each work is framed under Plexiglas
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon was among Keith Haring's very first introductions to the vast world of visual culture and the figure which fostered Haring's earliest appreciation for art and drawn images as a young child. Since Disney's introduction of Mickey Mouse in 1928, this character has remained the predominant icon for the entry of art into mainstream culture and therefore served as an appropriate archetype for Haring to riff off as he questioned the relationship between these worlds.

Through the 1980s, America watched as the vibrant art of Keith Haring populated fine art galleries and museums, commercial store fronts and the streets and subway systems of New York City. With his fresh artistic voice, Keith Haring seamlessly fused these typically disparate realms as he introduced a distinct visual language. Building upon the Pop art foundation that Warhol laid down in the previous decade, Haring embraced pop culture iconography and continued to drive it in new directions within the realm of fine art.

Compositionally, the present work reads like a filmstrip and plays with themes of intimacy and shifting perspective. These panels force an atypical closeness with this iconic character and with this, the artist prompts a questioning of our intimacy and comfort with pop culture and American society more generally. Haring was interested not only in the familiarity of pop imagery but also in its universal appeal and ability to reach a larger public. Untitled (Mickey Mouse) was created in the same year that Haring famously began drawing in white chalk upon the black paper panels throughout the subway system in attempt to bring art to a greater audience.

In his journals, Haring himself explained, "My contribution to the world is my ability to draw. I will draw as much as I can for as many people as I can for as long as I can. Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic." (Keith Haring, Keith Haring Journals, New York, 2010, p. 102)