Keith Haring

Radiant figures and Pop Shop editions — accessible icons with serious print-market demand.

Keith Haring (1958–1990) was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and moved to New York in 1978. In the early 1980s he became known for the chalk drawings he made on the black paper panels covering unused advertising spaces in the New York subway, and his crawling babies, barking dogs and dancing figures became a public visual language.

In 1986 Haring opened the Pop Shop in SoHo, New York, a retail store selling posters, T-shirts, buttons and other objects carrying his imagery, intended to make his work available to a wide audience at low prices.

The Pop Shop screenprint portfolios grew out of that project. Pop Shop I was published in 1987, Pop Shop II in 1988, and Pop Shop III, IV, V and VI in 1989. Each portfolio comprises four screenprints, issued in a standard edition of 200, published by Martin Lawrence Editions and printed by Durham Press. Individual plates are catalogued in Littmann’s catalogue raisonné of Haring’s editions.