In the 1980s, where most subway riders in New York viewed stations as mere stops on their daily commutes, Keith Haring spotted a prime canvas.
“I remember noticing a panel in the Times Square station and immediately going aboveground and buying chalk,” the Pennsylvania-born artist later recalled. “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.”
Over the course of his regrettably short career, Haring decorated the New York subway with hundreds upon hundreds of graffiti drawings. On November 21, 31 of those drawings will be put up for auction for the first time at Sotheby’s New York. Offered up by longtime Haring collector Larry Warsh, they’re collectively expected to fetch a whole lot more than your average piece of street art—somewhere between $6.3 and $6.9 million, to be precise. (Haring’s auction record currently stands at $6.5 million, according to the Artnet Price Database.)
Keith Haring, Untitled (Still Alive in ’85). Photo: Sotheby’s.
Before these graffiti sketches go under the hammer, they will be put on display at the auction house as part of a special exhibition titled “Art in Transit: 31 Keith Haring Subway Drawings from the Collection of Larry Warsh.” According to Kathleen Hart, Sotheby’s Head of Session, the drawings will be hung inside faux 1980s subway carts, “transporting visitors back to the very moment” Haring created them.
Keith Haring, Untitled (Mermaid—Angel, Dolphins, Angels, Barking Dogs). Photo: Sotheby’s.
Born in 1958, Haring first came to New York City to study painting at the School of Visual Arts in 1978. He didn’t start drawing on subway carts because he was dissatisfied with the quality of his education, but because he was looking for a way to kill time during his daily commute. At first, he drew almost exclusively on the black paper the Metropolitan Transit Authority used to cover up unpaid advertisements.
“Keith Haring’s subway drawings are his ultimate, years-long love letters to New York City,” said Ashkan Baghestani, head of the house’s Contemporay Art Day Auction. “Drawing dozens of works almost daily, Haring’s legacy unfolded in front of millions, as he transformed the everyday experience into the extraordinary through his lexicon of instantly identifiable imagery.”
Keith Haring, Untitled (Boombox Head). Photo: Sotheby’s.
These chalk drawings have been stewarded by Warsh for almost four decades, during which the collection was shown in the Brooklyn Museum’s 2012 blockbuster, “Keith Haring: 1978–1982,” and published in Keith Haring: 31 Subway Drawings in 2021.
Among the pieces headed to the block are Untitled (Boombox Head) (1984), which features Haring’s dancing figures; Untitled (Still Alive in ’85), in which the artist reflects on the era’s political environment with his signature motifs such as barking dogs and angels; and Untitled (Mermaid – Angel, Dolphins, Angels, Barking Dogs), centered on his fantastical elements.
In style and content, the works capture Haring’s political and social engagement, and his desire to create art with maximum accessibility. “The public has a right to art,” he once asserted. “Art is for everybody.”
“It was the overarching idea for this five-year long project,” said Gil Vazquez, executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation. “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.”