A wall drawing of Keith Haring’s signature “Radiant Baby” is coming to auction.
Haring drew the figure, a crawling infant surrounded by a halo, in gold marker above a light switch on the wall of his childhood bedroom in his hometown of Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
The drawing will hit the auction block on September 14, when it will be offered as part of a postwar and contemporary art sale at the New Jersey auction house Rago/Wright’s. The drawing, which measures 5 inches in height, will be offered for sale still affixed to a portion of the blue wall on which it was painted.
Haring, who moved to New York in 1978 to attend the School of Visual Arts, traveled back often to visit his family’s home in Pennsylvania. Christine Isabelle Oaklander, an art historian, assisted the Pennsylvania house’s current owners in bringing the work to auction. Oaklander believes the artist likely produced the gold-pen drawing during a visit before his death in 1990 at the age of 27 from AIDS-related complications.
Set to be auctioned this fall alongside the drawing are two posters Haring made for events benefiting Long Island Focus on Art in 1988 and City Kids Speak on Liberty in 1986. Rago/Wright’s has not yet disclosed estimates for the works.
