SOTHEBY'S TO PRESENT: DEAR KEITH An Online Auction of Works from the Personal Collection of Artist & Activist Keith Haring, on Offer from the Keith Haring Foundation

Dedicated Sale to Feature 140+ Works Gifted to, Purchased by and Traded with Haring from Iconic Friends and Artists Including:
Andy Warhol | Jean-Michel Basquiat | Kenny Scharf
George Condo | Roy Lichtenstein | Jenny Holzer

Together Bringing to Life the Celebrated Arts Scene of 1970s & 80s New York, of Which Haring Was a Defining Voice

All Works Appearing at Auction for the First Time, with Estimates Starting at $100

100% of the Foundation’s Proceeds to Benefit The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of New York (The Center), for Which Haring Created A Large-Scale Mural in 1989

Coinciding with the 30th Anniversary Year of Haring’s Death in 1990 from HIV/AIDS-Related Causes

Open for Bidding from 24 September – 1 October
&
On Exhibition in New York Beginning 26 September

“An artist is a spokesman for a society at any given point in history. His language is determined by his perception of the world we all live in. He is a medium between ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’.” – Keith Haring

Dedicated Sale to Feature 140+ Works Gifted to, Purchased by and Traded with Haring from Iconic Friends and Artists Including:
Andy Warhol | Jean-Michel Basquiat | Kenny Scharf
George Condo | Roy Lichtenstein | Jenny Holzer

Together Bringing to Life the Celebrated Arts Scene of 1970s & 80s New York, of Which Haring Was a Defining Voice

All Works Appearing at Auction for the First Time, with Estimates Starting at $100

100% of the Foundation’s Proceeds to Benefit The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of New York (The Center), for Which Haring Created A Large-Scale Mural in 1989

Coinciding with the 30th Anniversary Year of Haring’s Death in 1990 from HIV/AIDS-Related Causes

Open for Bidding from 24 September – 1 October
&
On Exhibition in New York Beginning 26 September

“An artist is a spokesman for a society at any given point in history. His language is determined by his perception of the world we all live in. He is a medium between ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’.” – Keith Haring

The sale features a significant group of works by artists associated with Club 57 – the night club located in a church basement in New York’s East Village that quickly became one of the most influential centers of the city’s countercultural movement when it opened its doors in 1978. Works by Jean-Michel Basquiat (pictured below: Basquiat, 'Untitled', estimate $100/150,000), Tseng Kwong Chi, Stefano Castronovo, Samantha McEwen, Kermit Oswald, Kenny Scharf, Bruno Schmidt and John Sex bear witness to a definitive downtown scene fueled by low rents, opposition to the Reagan administration, and the desire to experiment with new modes of art, performance, fashion, music, and exhibition.

Kenny Scharf was particularly close with Haring – having become fast friends at the School of the Visual Arts, the two were roommates and collaborated often. The sale features works on paper by the artist, highlighted by his watercolor on paper in hand-painted frame Untitled (pictured below, estimate $18/25,000), as well as a number of hand-painted objects.

The street art scene in which Haring worked in the 1970s and 80s is well represented, including pieces by John “Crash” Matos, Lady Pink, Lee Quiñones, Rammellzee and Basquiat, whose work he greatly admired. In his essay “Remembering Basquiat” published in Vogue, Haring wrote: "His work had a kind of power which was unmistakably 'real'. The intensity and directness of his vision was intimidating. Jean-Michel was maybe a little too real for us. He was uncompromising, disobedient, and rude if the situation required it. Not malicious, but honest.”
Another close friend of the artist was George Condo, who often worked from Haring’s East Village studio. The sale includes an excellent grouping of early drawings and paintings done by the artist in the 1980s, including an Untitled work on paper featuring the inscription: For Keith in Paris, so it is once before a bum I am... (pictured below, estimate $12/18,000).

Haring also owned a number of works by established artists whom he greatly admired, including Pierre Alechinsky, Jean Cocteau, Alberto Giacometti, Roy Lichtenstein and Pablo Picasso. The sale includes two Lichtenstein prints, including Forms in Space from 1985 which took pride of place above the fireplace in his home (pictured below, estimate $50/70,000). Lichtenstein attended Keith's first major exhibition in New York, as did Robert Rauschenberg and Sol Le Witt.