KEITH HARING (1958 – 1990)
Untitled, 1982
Spray paint on metal
84x75x2 inches (213.4 x 190.5 x 5.1 cm)

Provenance
Max Protetch Gallery, New York
Beatrix and Gregor Medinger, New York
Christie’s, New York, 14 December 1987, Art Against AIDS, lot 19 (consigned by the above)
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Auction History
Sotheby’s New-York: 18 May 2023
Estimated: USD 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
USD 2,722,000

Untitled | Contemporary Evening Auction | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

Keith Haring was a master at transforming found objects into jubilant works of art. During the early 1980s while making his way in New York City, Haring was working mostly with found objects as he galvanized his singular style, and it was only later that he began working on canvas in a more ‘formal’ way. In its impressive scale, iconic subject, and sheer graphic force, this rare Untitled (White Happy Face) from 1982 exemplifies the enduring power of Keith Haring’s celebrated artistic vernacular. Spray-painted on the hood of a metal postal van in determined black lines, Untitled (White Happy Face) recalls the frenetic and imaginative nature of Haring’s early graffiti-based practice. Executed at the pinnacle of Haring’s prolific period of drawing and tagging billboards in the New York subway system, the present work references the act of graffiti through material application and performative action. With this work, Haring manifests a recognizable symbol of happiness on an unconventional, utilitarian surface. Rendered with deft gestural dynamism, the caricatured face is immune from the inequity of modern life, instead exuding an overwhelming sense of joy and optimism.

Amongst Haring’s most iconic motifs, the present work is one of only nine single smiley faces in Haring’s practice, three of which are held in the prestigious collection of The Brant Foundation, New York. Contrasting the simplicity and infectious ease of his image, his van hood medium lends the work an immediate conceptual gravitas, recalling both the brazen energy of the Duchampian readymade and formal rigor of the Minimalists. The subject of a major upcoming, career-spanning exhibition at The Broad Museum beginning in May 2023, Haring is celebrated for his extraordinary ability to blur the line between high and low art; nowhere is this ability more evident than Untitled (White Happy Face), where medium, gesture, and image meet in a singular testament to the immediate and enduring power of Haring’s artistic vernacular. Underscoring the significance of the present work, Untitled (White Happy Face) bears a particularly robust exhibition history, and emerges today from a celebrated private collection where it has resided for over four decades.