Scholarship
Primary research, archival recovery, and condition documentation. Every claim is built from firsthand inspection and the documentary record — not hearsay, not market lore.
Scholarship · Conservation · Provenance
A scholarly stewardship of Keith Haring's 1980—1985 subway drawings.
An independent research project.
Mission
Between 1980 and 1985, Keith Haring made hundreds of chalk drawings on the matte-black paper that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority pasted over expired advertisements in New York's subway stations. They were public works, made in public, for a public that encountered them in passing. Many were rescued before they were destroyed. Others were removed without authorization. Nearly all have since dispersed into private hands, with their histories thinning at every transfer.
The Subway Drawings Project exists to study this body of work with the seriousness it has never collectively received. We are a scholarly research project — not a gallery, not a dealer, and not an authentication committee. We do not buy, sell, broker, or appraise. We undertake primary research: archival recovery, condition documentation, and the patient reconstruction of provenance for works that have too often been treated as commodities rather than as cultural record.
Our method is conservation-first. Chalk on newsprint-grade paper is among the most fragile media an artist of Haring's stature ever used, and the decisions made by those who hold these works now will determine whether they survive the century. We hold no commercial agenda. Our only product is knowledge, published openly and held to scholarly standards.
These were public works. We mean to return them to public understanding.
Toward a Catalogue Raisonné
A catalogue raisonné is the definitive scholarly inventory of an artist's work: a comprehensive, critically annotated record of every known piece within a defined body, each entry built from firsthand examination and documented evidence. It is the reference against which authorship, provenance, and condition are measured for generations. For most major artists it is the single most consequential act of scholarship their work receives.
There is no catalogue raisonné of Keith Haring's complete works. There has never been one of the subway drawings. The Project is producing the first.
The existing literature is partial. Klaus Littmann's catalogue addresses Haring's editioned prints; the Keith Haring Foundation has described exploring a catalogue raisonné since 2012 without publishing one, and disbanded its authentication committee that same year — leaving the subway drawings in a market limbo without a recognized scholarly standard. The work of building that standard has, until now, simply not been done.
The Project's scholarship is directed by Gil Vazquez, former President and Executive Director of the Keith Haring Foundation, whose authority on this material is unmatched among living scholars. Inclusion in the catalogue raisonné is intended to become the reference standard by which these works are understood — by historians, conservators, institutions, and the market alike.
What a catalogue raisonné entry contains
Methodology
The Project's work rests on four pillars. Each governs how a work is studied, recorded, and understood.
Primary research, archival recovery, and condition documentation. Every claim is built from firsthand inspection and the documentary record — not hearsay, not market lore.
Best practices for chalk on MTA paper — among the most fragile media in postwar art. We document handling, framing, light exposure, and storage so these works survive.
Chain-of-ownership research that distinguishes works rescued from destruction from those removed without authorization. Honest history, recorded without euphemism.
Restoring these works to public consciousness. Made in public space for everyone who passed, they deserve a public record — accessible, accurate, and lasting.
An independent research project. Not affiliated with the Keith Haring Foundation.
The Project does not issue certificates of authenticity. Inclusion in the catalogue raisonné reflects scholarly acceptance of authorship based on primary research.
Members
Founder & Director
Donald Wood-Smith founded the Subway Drawings Project to give Keith Haring's subway works the sustained, independent scholarship they have long lacked. He directs the Project's research program and its commitment to conservation-first stewardship, holding the work to the standards of published art-historical scholarship rather than the conventions of the market.
Programs Director
Gil Vazquez is the former President and Executive Director of the Keith Haring Foundation, where he stewarded the artist's legacy for many years. As Programs Director he leads the Project's scholarly authority on the subway drawings, bringing direct, longstanding knowledge of Haring's practice, materials, and the documentary record. His involvement anchors the catalogue raisonné as the prospective reference standard for this body of work.
Additional scholars and advisors to be announced.
Submit a Work for Consideration
Collectors and conservators wishing to have a subway drawing considered for inclusion in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné may submit details below. All inquiries are received in confidence.
Contact
For research inquiries, archival contributions, and submissions:
[email protected]