Limited Edition Keith Haring Doubles Plate

Keith Haring | Swid Powell | Ceramic with over-glaze and gilded decoration | Italy | 1992 | 12“D x 2.5”H | $575

Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art and graffiti-like work grew out of the New York City street culture of the 1980s. Leap frogging from subway to East Village to Soho Gallery in a matter of years, Haring brought an almost child-like approach to the issues of the day – AIDS, crack, LGBTQ rights, and apartheid, among others. Haring opened The Pop Shop on Lafayette St in Manhattan to sell merchandise featuring his work, rankling the art establishment. He died of AIDS.

Designed after Haring’s painting, “Doubles,” these plates were produced by Swid Powell for Special Editions Limited in 1992. Swid Powell was a New York based company [1982-2001] that commissioned and produced tabletop items designed by architects, designers, and artists from  Robert Mapplethorpe to Robert AM Stern. Planned for a numbered edition of 3,000, it is believed that no more than 500 of the Doubles plates were actually produced. This plate is marked 276/3000.

On a personal note, Keith Haring and other street artists were achieving prominence as I was finishing my degree at Parsons School of Design in NYC. I wrote my last art history paper on Haring, met him at  Tony Shafrazi Gallery, and would see him out at nightclubs like The World in the East Village.