Keith Haring, 1972-1973

A pair of illustrated high school yearbook inscriptions Keith Haring, 1972-1973 HARING, Keith (1958-1990). Drawing of a dog inscribed and signed to "Denise," [Kutztown, Pennsylvania, c. June 1972] on the front free endpaper of The 1972 Cougar, the yearbook for Kutztown Area High School. [With:] drawing of a dog inscribed and signed to "Denise," [Kutztown, Pennsylvania, c. June 1973] on the front free endpaper of Cougar Nineteen Hundred Seventy Three, the yearbook for Kutztown Area High School. Both volumes quarto (312 x 235mm). Illustrated boards. A pair of early drawings from Haring's school years. Each of the inscribed volumes features a similar image of an excited cartoon dog waving its arms and wagging its tail (replete with the lines indicated movement that would come to distinguish his work in the 1980s. Ending his eighth-grade year in June 1972, he writes, "TO A REAL NEAT GIRL WHO'S NOT IN 8-2, BECAUSE I MADE A MISTAKE WRITING THIS DUMB LITTLE SENTENCE! TO A GIRL WHO REALLY CHANGED! GOOD LUCK ALWAYS! KEITH HARING." (Haring appears in a class photograph for the eighth grade.) Haring's inscription to Denise the following year follows a similar pattern, "DENISE — TO A GIRL WHO HAS A DIFFERENT MOOD EVERY DAY. I DON'T THINK I WILL EVER FORGET THE FUN WE HAD IN 9TH GRADE. YOUR FRIEND, Keith Haring '76'". (In the 1973 edition, Haring is named in the caption in a group photograph for a ninth-grade class, but the placement is incorrect.) [With:] Cougar 1971. Kutztown, Pennsylvania, 1971. Quarto (312 x 235mm). Illustrated boards. (Featuring an image of Haring in his seventh-grade class photograph on page 106.)