COKE label

Keith Haring, artist

1958–1990

COKE label, 1985

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: Coca-Cola beverage container label; ink

Credit line: Loaned by the Estate of William S. Burroughs

Accession number: L1990.017

On display: Perkins Central Court

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Label texts

Street Nihonga: The Art of Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani

Like Mirikitani, Keith Haring transformed discarded materials into potent vehicles of expression. Both artists rooted their practices in public, accessible spaces—Haring in the subways and streets of New York, Mirikitani on the sidewalks of lower Manhattan. In this Coca-Cola piece, Haring’s reuse of commercial packaging parallels Mirikitani’s inventive use of found materials such as paper, Styrofoam, and discarded shower curtains. In one striking example, Mirikitani glued a photocopied image of Mt. Fuji to the back of a DHL shipping envelope, embellishing it with colored pencil. In another, he drew a cat inside an abandoned wooden drawer, adorning it with flakes of gold paper. Both artists reclaimed society’s castoffs, transforming urban debris into enduring symbols of creative defiance.

Exhibition Label:
“Big Shots: Andy Warhol, Celebrity Culture and the 1980s,” Aug-2009, Susan Earle
This drawing was made on a Coca-Cola bottle label. Haring was known best for his drawings in the New York City subway system and t-shirts that raised awareness of the AIDS crisis. He knew Warhol and their artwork shared a profound integration of democratic ideals and popular culture. On a local scale, Haring visited Lawrence, Kansas, in 1987 to participate in the River City Reunion, which featured writer and Lawrence resident William S. Burroughs and was organized by longtime Burroughs companion James Grauerholz. During his visit, Haring also allegedly created a graffiti piece on the walls of Lucifer’s, an abandoned building (now destroyed) that was a favorite hangout of local punk rockers.