with Tony Shafrazi, New York;
with Gallery Cotthen, Knokke-Zoute, 1999;
Where acquired by the present owner.

Dedicated to Sam Havadtoy - a British born Hungarian-American interior designer, contemporary painter and owner of Gallery 56.

The American artist Keith Haring skyrocketed to fame in 1980s New York, embodying the energy and dynamism of the city. He belonged to the lively circle of young musicians and artists who frequented the East Village, including Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and from 1982 was represented by the prominent dealer Tony Shafrazi. Haring’s boldly iconic style is instantly recognizable: abstracted human and animal forms are rendered in stark black outlines, bright colours evoke a vivacious Pop mood and linear patterns emanating from his figures suggest an often effervescent sense of movement. Haring drew inspiration from myriad sources, including Jean Dubuffet’s art brut, the writings of the semiotician Umberto Eco, the graffiti of the New York subways and sidewalks, Pop art’s ambitions to bring popular culture into a critique of fine art, the commitment to public art on the part of Christo and Jeanne-Claude as well as African and Aboriginal forms. Haring also approached art as a liberating form of social activism, exploring themes around capitalist exploitation, drug abuse and the threat of nuclear holocaust; after contracting AIDS in 1988, his activism became focused on the lethal epidemic. Haring died of an AIDS-related illness less than two years later. Though primarily a painter, Haring worked in a wide range of different media, including chalk and sumi ink drawing, installation, performance, video art, sculpture, collage, among many others.

The monumentally-scaled Piglet Goes Shopping of 1989 is the ultimate expression of Haring's singular aesthetic and of his activist spirit, which never shied away from critiquing the very systems which secured his commercial success and artistic legacy. In Haring’s semiotically charged bestiary, the pig represents capitalism and consumerism. In Piglet Goes Shopping, whose title must derive from Mother Goose's Little Piggy nursery rhymes, specifically the little piggy who goes to market, the pig is represented in stylised forms rendered in brilliant shades of pink and blue, with a clearly defined turquoise snout. Poised against a pale background, green American dollar bills flutter all around the pig, which clutches two of the notes in its flailing hooves. A tight maze of black patterning defines the surface of the canvas, suggestive of the energetic machinery of production and desire, acceleration and increase, drawing the viewer into a cyclical conceit over which they have no control and from which there is no escape—a metaphor for, and critique of, the capitalist system and the trap of consumerism on which it thrives.

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Keith Haring estate.

The artwork described above is subject to changes in availability and price without prior notice. Where applicable ARR will be added.