New York City is home to countless works of graffiti. Free Parking, a new gallery in the East Village by CART Dept., highlighted two cars spray painted by Keith Haring, an artist known for chalk drawings displayed in NYC’s subway tunnels during the 80s. The exhibition ran from April 10 to 19 where the “Keith Haring: In the Street” exhibit could be viewed at no cost.
Before dying of AIDs at 31, Haring created over 5,000 subway chalk drawings between 1980 and 1985, according to NY1, some of which were on display at the exhibit.
“He would make these within minutes, he would always start off with a border first, and then create the scene within it,” Sabrina Marsalisi, director of education at The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, where some of his earlier works are displayed, told Spectrum News.
Haring initially began drawing while waiting for the train on his way to work, according to the Keith Haring Foundation. He began receiving comments from people who noticed.
Haring wrote in his book “Art in Transit,” writing, “After a while, my subway drawings became more of a responsibility than a hobby. So many people wished me luck and told me to ‘keep it up’ that it became difficult to stop.”
“Even if the drawing only remained up for only one day, enough people saw it to make it easily worth my effort,” he said.
Haring decided the subway shouldn’t be the only canvas for his art, so he expanded his work to cars. The exhibition featured two of four cars hand painted by Haring in his last 10 years.
One car was a 1963 Buick Special and the other, a 1971 Land Rover Series III. This exhibit marked the first time these cars were placed on view in NYC.
Both vehicles present images of “barking dogs, babies, snakes, mushroom clouds, and other elements” ARTnews reported.
The Buick had red and blue squiggles while the Land Rover had black squiggles, similar to a sketchbook. The Buick was the first car Haring ever painted. It was a gift for the architect of his SoHo Pop Shop believed to be Moore and Pennoyer.
The Land Rover has been given a spotlight before at Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival in 1983. It was in the public eye 10 years ago at Los Angeles’ Petersen Automotive Museum.
Larry Warsh, the collector of the cars, acquired the Land Rover from the producers of the Jazz Festival and stores both mobiles “just outside of the city,” according to ARTnews.
Visitors can also see work Haring did as a gift for gallery owner Tony Shafrazi who helped launch his career, and a portrait of Haring done by Jean-Michel Basquiat, an artist and a friend to Haring, NY1 said.
Though Haring died in 1990, the exhibit celebrated his work and a new book dedicated to him published by Monacelli entitled “Keith Haring in 3D.”
