“Art is for everyone.” Keith Haring’s mantra was never more evident than in the chalk drawings he created across the New York City subway system between 1980 and 1985. These works were conceived as a gift to the public, immediate and free, encountered by commuters in the hum of daily life. They were meant to be shared, not preserved. And yet, against all odds, some survived. Today, those fragile sheets of MTA poster paper, creased, marked, and sometimes still clinging to their subway backings, stand as treasures of art history.

For decades, Donald Wood-Smith has stood at the forefront of championing these little-known but vital masterpieces. Founded by Wood-Smith, the firm brings together perspectives rooted in both scholarship and lived experience. As a gallerist and collector, dealer and historian, Wood-Smith’s passion for, and knowledge of, the subway drawings is profound, underpinning a practice unmatched in depth and authority; his collection, one of the largest and most comprehensive private holdings of its kind, has been exhibited widely, from the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center to the New York Transit Museum’s digital program, with forthcoming shows at The Armory Show in New York and the Rahr-West Art Museum in Wisconsin.

This scope of experience has established Wood-Smith Art Group as the recognized global authority on Haring’s subway works. Their expertise is not theoretical; it is grounded in the physical handling of scores of drawings, in transactions with collectors and institutions, and in curatorial projects that have framed the subway works as equal in importance to Haring’s studio canvases.

Authenticity and Stewardship

From the outset, Haring’s subway drawings received a complex reception. Because they were created illegally in public space, using chalk on impermanent supports, the Keith Haring Foundation initially refused to authenticate them. Many works were dismissed as vandalism or ephemera. Yet Wood-Smith recognized in them something fundamental. These were not marginal works. They were the foundation of Haring’s visual language and the laboratory where he forged the vocabulary that would later dominate his studio practice.

It is here that the role of Wood-Smith Art Group is most critical. Having handled, studied, and placed more subway drawings than nearly any other individuals in the market, Wood-Smith possess a connoisseurship that cannot be replicated. Subtle variations in chalk pressure, speed of execution, paper quality, and iconographic consistency are all part of the criteria that only seasoned stewards of the works can reliably discern.

Carrying the Legacy Forward

The mission of Wood-Smith has always included public exhibition as a form of preservation and awareness. Each showing, whether in a small gallery, a major museum, or an online digital archive, ensures that these drawings remain part of the cultural conversation. By presenting them to the public, Wood-Smith reaffirms Haring’s original intention: that art belongs to everyone.

Today, as the art market finally catches up with the significance of the subway drawings, with auction results crossing into the millions, WS Group continues its dual responsibility. On one hand, it ensures that the works are recognized as blue-chip cultural assets, equal to any of Haring’s studio pieces. On the other hand, it sustains Haring’s legacy as an artist who believed that art’s greatest power came not from exclusivity, but from radical accessibility.