.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
“[Keith Haring’s] images are insightfully chosen and carefully worked out with a sensitivity toward layers of meaning and sexual connotation. They are not just drawings but ‘signs.’ But these rings of meaning around the individual figures are only part of the Haring process. The work’s full impact results from a mélange of all these elements: context, medium, imagery; and their infiltration into the urban consciousnesses. Individual frames may appear perfectly innocent, but taken together, Haring’s works have a quality of menace, a sense of impending violence and of sexual exploitation. They diagram the collective unconscious of a city—a city that moves along happily enough, but just barely enough to keep from degenerating into the dog-eat-dog, topsy turvy world of Haring’s images.” (Jeffrey Deitch, Keith Haring, New York, 2008, pp. 220-221)
Keith Haring first drew the attention of New York and the art world at large in 1981-1982 with his guerilla graffiti drawings on blank black placards often found on Manhattan's subway platforms. In these early drawings, Haring created his personal vocabulary of symbols that would appear on paintings and objects shown on the more rarified stage of gallery shows during the rest of his life and beyond. In this early stage, Haring's imagery derived from the street, pushing a social agenda that was raw but typically cryptic and open to the viewer's interpretation.
The present Untitled (Glowing Dog) was completed during this important formative period and relates directly to his early chalk subway drawings. In the draftsmanship of this work on paper, from the group referred to as blueprint drawings, Haring projects a mature style that is simple and direct, with an economy of line. There were 17 drawings from this series created between December 1980 and January 1981. They were executed on vellum with Sumi ink because Keith would then take them to the local blueprinter to have them copied. These drawings were exhibited in Haring's first one-man show at Westbeth Painter's Space, New York, in February 1981. Their historic importance is unparalleled. These drawings, with Untitled (Glowing Dog) as a particularly vibrant example, mark the transformation from Haring the street graffiti artist to Haring the gallery artist.
Keith Haring first drew the attention of New York and the art world at large in 1981-1982 with his guerilla graffiti drawings on blank black placards often found on Manhattan's subway platforms. In these early drawings, Haring created his personal vocabulary of symbols that would appear on paintings and objects shown on the more rarified stage of gallery shows during the rest of his life and beyond. In this early stage, Haring's imagery derived from the street, pushing a social agenda that was raw but typically cryptic and open to the viewer's interpretation.
The present Untitled (Glowing Dog) was completed during this important formative period and relates directly to his early chalk subway drawings. In the draftsmanship of this work on paper, from the group referred to as blueprint drawings, Haring projects a mature style that is simple and direct, with an economy of line. There were 17 drawings from this series created between December 1980 and January 1981. They were executed on vellum with Sumi ink because Keith would then take them to the local blueprinter to have them copied. These drawings were exhibited in Haring's first one-man show at Westbeth Painter's Space, New York, in February 1981. Their historic importance is unparalleled. These drawings, with Untitled (Glowing Dog) as a particularly vibrant example, mark the transformation from Haring the street graffiti artist to Haring the gallery artist.