Provenance: Private collection, Paris
Hamilton Selway gallery, Los Angeles

An international art star, Keith Haring and his work have often been characterized as an iconic symbol of the eighties, embodying the decade’s street art and urban energy in New York. While his career involved a diverse range of art-making, his subway drawings stand among his most well-known and celebrated works.

Haring drew over 5,000 chalk drawings over a five-year period, from 1980 to 1985, in New York City subway stations. Since the beginning of his career, Haring was determined to create art that could be for everyone, both through an accessible style and by locating his work in easily reachable, public locations. Creating art on the street meant that a bigger audience could see his work, outside of the more insular space of an art gallery.