Keith Haring, Best Buddies Pop Shop I (Plate 1), from the Pop Shop I Portfolio, 1987

Artist: Keith Haring (1958 - 1990)
Title:Pop Shop I (Plate 1), from the Pop Shop I Portfolio, 1987
Reference:Littmann P. 82 a
Series:Pop Shop I, 1987
Medium:Silkscreen
Image Size:13 ½ in x 10 ½ in (34.3 cm x 26.7 cm)
Sheet Size:15 in x 12 in (38.1 cm x 30.5 cm)
Edition:Numbered from the edition of 200 in pencil in the lower right margin.
Signature:This work is hand-signed by Keith Haring (Reading, 1958 – New York, 1990) in pencil in the lower right margin.
Condition:This work is in excellent condition.
ID #W-10058

Historical Description

Keith Haring Best Buddies Pop Shop I (Plate 1), 1987 is the first print in the artist’s Pop Shop I portfolio of 1987. This silkscreen print features two of Haring's famous black line figures. Two human figures, one yellow and one orange, are pictured with an arm around each other. All four of the prints in the portfolio stick to the limited color palette of yellow, orange, purple, and teal. Haring was interested in subjects relating to humanity, morality, creation, death, violence and sex. The positioning of the two figures in this print shows the closeness between two friends. Haring created multiple Pop Shop portfolios during the span of his career, inspired by the Pop Shop that he opened in a retail space in downtown New York in 1986. This shop was opened with the intention of making the artist’s work accessible to the general public, and this accessibility is an explicitly Pop sentiment.

Keith Haring’s Best Buddies Pop Shop I (Plate 1), 1987 is part of a portfolio of four screenprints in the artist’s Pop Shop I portfolio of 1987. This body of work depicts some of the artist’s iconic figures in a limited palette of yellow, blue, orange, black and purple. Also featured in this portfolio are Pop Shop I (Plate 2), Pop Shop I (Plate 3) and Pop Shop I (Plate 4).

Created in 1987, Best Buddies silkscreen is hand-signed by Keith Haring (Reading, 1958 – New York, 1990) in pencil in the center right image and numbered from the edition of 200 in pencil in the center right image.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
Keith Haring Best Buddies Pop Shop I (Plate 1), from the Pop Shop I Portfolio, 1987 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work).

1. Littmann, Klaus. Keith Haring: Editions on Paper 1982-1990 (The Complete Printed Works). Germany: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 1993. Listed and illustrated on pgs. 82 a.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Keith Haring  Best Buddies Pop Shop I (Plate 1), from the Pop Shop I Portfolio, 1987 is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.