Although work by graffiti turned-gallery artist Keith Haring (1958–90) remained highly collectible after his death of AIDS at 31, there has been a surge of interest in it of late, with pieces by him bringing millions at auction, a traveling exhibition in 2023, and collaborations by the estate with such popular brands as Polaroid, Converse, Swatch, Casetify, and Uniqlo.
Now, according to a report in Hypebeast, two of the four automobiles that Haring decorated in the last 10 years of his life—a 1963 Buick Special and a 1971 Land Rover Defender III—will be the highlight of “Keith Haring: In the Street,” a nine-day exhibition in New York City.
Both automobiles are painted top to bottom in Haring’s rapidly outlined images of barking dogs, babies, snakes, mushroom clouds, and other elements from his personal visual language. They are the property of car collector Larry Warsh, whose curatorial platform, CART Department, “a cultural platform devoted to the automobile as an artistic and social artifact,” also owns Free Parking, the exhibition space where the cars will be displayed.
In addition to the Buick and the Land Rover, the show will include a selection of original artworks by Haring and will be accompanied by a series of conversations with artists, writers, and friends of the artist. It serves as a launch for the new book Keith Haring in 3D, edited by Warsh and Glenn Adamson. It is also a foretaste of a major exhibition, opening in June at Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, for which the book is the exhibition catalog.
