Last year, a certain notable building at 945 Madison Avenue in New York City received landmark status. It’s been a busy time to the structure, known as the Breuer Building, which was the home of the Whitney Museum for many years. After that, it briefly hosted part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection; when that temporary arrangement ended, news emerged that the space would remain a hub for art, this time through the auction house Sotheby’s.
Now up on display is an array of work by an artist inexorably associated with New York City: Keith Haring. What makes these works — including a self-portrait — so distinctive? To begin, they cover over a decade in Haring’s artistic career, spanning the years 1977 to 1989. They have also not been as widely seen as some of Haring’s other work; these paintings and sculptures are from the collection of Keith Haring’s childhood friend Kermit Oswald.
The exhibit, Haring’s House: From the Collection of Kermit Oswald, opened on May 2, and serves as the prelude to an auction of 41 works of art, set to take place in October.
While some of the works on display will be familiar to admirers of Haring’s paintings, certain objects have a more unique provenance. Visitors to the show will be able to see a distinctively-painted dresser and crib. Those were both used by Oswald when he was a child; Haring painted them and added his own designs to them as a gift for the birth of Oswald’s first child. (That’s the Oswald family dog on the crib.) This also means that somewhere in the world, there are people who spent their formative years sleeping inside a Keith Haring sculpture. That’s an amazing origin story.
If You See One Art Show This Summer, Make It Keith Haring at The Broad
The ’80s artist provides a path forward for today’s activism-minded creatives“This group of unseen works is a survey of Haring’s early illustrations, bold carved wood sculptures and an exceedingly rare self-portrait, which together trace the evolution of his iconic visual vocabulary,” said Kathleen Hart of Sotheby’s New York in a statement. “Kermit and Keith shared a once in a lifetime friendship, bonded through artistry and creativity.”
As Gothamist reports, this show will be on display through May 13.
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