Keith Haring Pop Shop Quad V

Pop Shop Quad V is a screenprint executed by the artist in 1987. The print in quad form is from a small edition of 45 compared to his other individuated, larger scale versions of Pop Shop series. The work takes its title from the artist’s famed Pop Shop opened by Keith Haring a year earlier in SoHo, New York. The series captures Haring’s well developed visual lexicon at what can be seen to be the height of his career.  In the scenes of the fifth quad in the series, Haring explores the relationship between humans, animals and the natural world with a spiritual undertone.  

Articulated in visually harmonious pinks and blues, the set merges land and sea in a playful allegory: a figure swims with, rides upon and walks on water with a dolphin. It is a powerful proclamation of unity and cooperation between all creatures that even finds expression in physical features.  The dolphin and person are often swapped or inverted: in plate three, the person has a tail (an addition appears to be a hybrid angel) and in plate four, the dolphin has human legs. As highly sociable animals, dolphins are often seen as a symbol of intelligence and joy. Yet often used by Haring, especially in his earlier Subway Drawings, the dolphin has a distinctly spiritual meaning as evidenced by its angelic form. In Christianity, dolphins represent Jesus and his guidance: Haring was well-known for his Christian imagery and upbringing. 

The enduring appeal of the Pop Shop prints are their playful, vivid visual form and accessibility as a ‘snapshot’ of images, resembling a comic strip in their boxed, grid presentation. Haring stated: ‘My shop is an extension of what I was doing in the subway stations, breaking down the barriers between high art and low art’. Though Haring’s motifs offer a multiplicity of interpretations, viewing them at their simplest level is enough to still have thought-provoking impact.