Sotheby's Goes Underground for Keith Haring's 'Art in Transit'

Ahead of Sotheby’s inaugural sale on November 21, the auction house has unveiled an immersive presentation of Art in Transit: 31 Keith Haring Subway Drawings from the Collection of Larry Warsh. Staged in a replication of a vintage New York subway station, this body of work culminates the collection efforts of No More Rulers founder Larry Warsh, making its first collective appearance in over a decade.

Amidst a display of benches, turnstiles and tiled walls, the exhibition transports viewers to the 23rd Street station in 1980s New York, harkening back to a moment of personal significance for the American artist. “I remember most clearly an afternoon of drawing in a studio with large doors that opened onto twenty-second street,” Haring recalled. “All kinds of people would stop and look at the huge drawing and many were eager to comment on their feelings toward it. This was the first time I realized how many people could enjoy art if they were given the chance.”

Even while his career began to take off aboveground, Haring remained committed to accessibility within art, favoring the black paper pasted on advertisements over the white-walled gallery space. “I arrived in New York at a time when the most beautiful paintings being shown in the city were on wheels – on trains – paintings that traveled to you instead of vice versa,” he stated. What began as a way to bring joy to the daily commutes of millions, these early “chalkman” iterations would become one of the most influential and widely recognizable artistic motifs of the twentieth century.

“My subway drawings became more of a responsibility than a hobby. Perhaps there is not another place in the world where people of such diverse appearance, background, and life-style have intermingled for a common purpose. This group of different people living and working together in harmony has always been my prime attraction to New York.”

Head to Sotheby’s New York to catch a glimpse of Art in Transit: 31 Keith Haring Subway Drawings from the Collection of Larry Warsh before the collection hits the auction block on November 21.

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