"Martos Gallery on Elizabeth Street in downtown Manhattan has mounted a rare presentation of 14 of the original 30 panels from Haring's FDR Drive mural, originally created onsite in 1984 along a 300-foot stretch of the highway facing the East River. Long thought lost, fragmented or scattered, the panels now appear together again in a gallery setting-still hung roughly 4.5 feet from the ground, just as they were when drivers, cyclists and dog walkers first encountered them in real time 40 years ago."
"Unlike many of Haring's more widely recognized subway chalk drawings or indoor-relegated works, the FDR mural, in private collections until now, was made for constant movement. It functioned as a kinetic frieze: a panoramic strip of dancing figures, radiating outlines, barking dogs, winged bodies and oversized lightbulbs, all outlined in Haring's unmistakable graphic script. The mural originally existed in conversation with the city's own rhythms: traffic flowing in two directions, headlights streaking by after dark, the river moving parallel to the highway."
Fourteen of the original thirty panels from Keith Haring's 1984 FDR Drive mural are presented at Martos Gallery on Elizabeth Street in Manhattan. The panels, long thought lost or scattered, are hung roughly 4.5 feet from the ground, mirroring their original positioning along the 300-foot highway stretch facing the East River. The mural functioned as a kinetic frieze of dancing figures, radiating outlines, barking dogs, winged bodies and oversized lightbulbs in Haring's graphic script. Created amid Reagan's 1984 re-election and the accelerating AIDS crisis, the work emphasizes movement and life rather than mourning. An accompanying essay by Bob Nickas frames the mural as social bulletin and private expression.
Read at Time Out New York
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