Untitled 1, from the series Untitled 1-6

Haring is one of the most iconic artists of the 1980s. His idiosyncratic line work draws from graffiti, mass media, queer subcultures, and Christian iconography. Haring never ascribed fixed meanings to his symbolic language of dogs, crawling babies, pyramids, and UFOs.

Exploring sex, religion, and the limits of respectability, this scene of bestiality comes from a series in which dogs also parade and nail the human figure to a crucifix. In the mid-1980s Haring began incorporating his eye-catching characters into public-facing works addressing AIDS and the crack epidemic affecting his community.