.png)
.webp)
Keith Haring transformed subway walls and blank billboards into vibrant storytelling spaces from 1980 to 1990.
His signature style—thick black outlines filled with neon colors, dancing figures, and barking dogs—appeared everywhere from New York City's concrete to Paris's pristine galleries.
In 1985, he created unauthorized art incorporating Coca-Cola’s iconic bottle.
While Coca-Cola distributed sugary drinks in plastic containers, Haring spray-painted environmental messages on city walls.
While the company's marketing targeted suburban families, Haring advocated for AIDS awareness and LGBTQ+ rights.
It reflected Haring's core philosophy: art belongs everywhere, even on mass-market products.
He deliberately chose spaces—subway stations, sidewalks, and yes, even corporate imagery—where his radiant babies and glowing hearts could reach people who never entered museums.
By appropriating Coca-Cola's imagery, Haring turned a symbol of consumerism into a canvas for social commentary.
Keith Haring painted 40 Coca-Cola bottles without the company's permission in the early 1980s.
He applied his distinct artistic style—dancing figures and bold lines—directly onto standard glass Coke bottles.
The bottles became rare art pieces that collectors now pursue.
Beyond the bottles, Haring painted a single Coca-Cola vending machine.
His design covered the metal surface with vibrant colors and his trademark motifs, converting an everyday street fixture into a unique artwork.
When Haring painted Coca-Cola bottles in his signature style in 1986, several art critics denounced the partnership in The Village Voice and ArtForum.
"Haring has sold out," wrote critic Robert Hughes, pointing to Coca-Cola's record of union busting in Latin America and plastic pollution in the Pacific.
Yet Haring continued to place Coca-Cola logos next to his works of art.
In his 1985 journal, he wrote: "When I draw that corporate symbol next to my own, I'm asking viewers to see both—to question why they trust one and fear the other."
"A kid might see my dog on a Coke can before they ever step foot in a museum," he told The New York Times in 1986. "That's exactly what I want."
Today, Keith Haring's Coca-Cola artwork commands premium prices at modern auctions.
In 2019, a single hand-painted Coke bottle by Haring sold for $87,500 at Sotheby's New York.
Haring decorated twenty-five bottles in total during his 1985 collaboration with Coca-Cola, using his signature bold lines and vibrant colors.
The Haring-designed Coca-Cola vending machine, created in 1983, stands as the only one in existence.
Contemporary artists like KAWS and Takashi Murakami follow Haring's precedent, incorporating corporate logos into their work.
KAWS's 2019 KAWS:HOLIDAY sculpture series featured the artist's signature X-eyed character clutching a Coca-Cola bottle, while Murakami's 2020 collection transformed luxury brand logos into his characteristic smiling flowers.
.webp)
Keith Haring died from AIDS-related complications on February 16, 1990.
He was 31.
Shortly after his death, Coca-Cola produced a set of aluminum cans decorated with Haring's distinctive figures.
The cans featured white backgrounds with black line drawings, mirroring Haring's subway chalk drawings from the 1980s New York art scene.
Art collectors and Coca-Cola enthusiasts sought these cans, storing them alongside prints and photographs.
.webp)
Artists still reference Haring's Coca-Cola works.
The Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra painted a five-story mural in 2019 featuring Haring's characteristic style mixed with Coca-Cola imagery.
Urban artists continue to use corporate symbols as their canvas, following Haring's lead in bringing art to unexpected places.
The Coca-Cola company never commissioned or approved Haring's work.
Yet these unauthorized bottles captured a moment when street art crashed into corporate America, creating something entirely new.
Haring showed that art could appear anywhere—even on a soda bottle in a trash-strewn alley.
.png){kind=logo}
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)