Red Dog

Coming directly from the estate of Keith Haring’s late mother, this iconic sculpture was displayed prominently at the Haring home in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, for years, before being loaned to the Reading Public Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania, where it was exhibited among works from the museum’s permanent collection.

While living in New York and traveling the world, Keith Haring maintained frequent contact with his family in Kutztown, and regularly sent home artworks, letters, and gifts. The present work was executed in 1986-87, during a period of renewed interest in sculpture for Haring. The previous year he had a solo exhibition of painted steel sculptures at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, where he reimagined his most enduring and iconic motifs in three-dimensional form. To create the sculptures for the Castelli exhibition, Haring first made aluminum models and then fabricated the steel works at Lippincott Sculpture foundry in Connecticut. Red Dog is a prime example of Haring’s playful and inventive genius translated to sculpture in the round. Poised on two legs, the barking dog projects itself through the floor, appearing both animated and benevolent, almost like a dog greeting it’s owner.