Street Art: 7 Specialists’ Picks from POP X Culture

From the streets to the gallery walls, our specialists select seven street art highlights from POP X Culture – spanning a Futura 2000 illustration for The Clash, screenprints by Keith Haring and Stik, and fashion collaborations between Louis Vuitton, Yayoi Kusama and Stephen Sprouse. Bidding is open until 18 October.

Futura 2000 (Leonard Hilton McGurr, b.1955)
A ‘Radio Clash Calling’ illustration, 1981

This unique illustration comes from the personal archive of Bernard Rhodes, designer, studio owner, record producer, songwriter and co-creator of The Clash.

Rhodes states, “The idea of this drawing was to visualise the musical journey from microphone to beatbox.” Created by pioneering New York graffiti artist Futura 2000, it forms part of the artwork used by The Clash on posters and promotional material for their Radio Clash tour in 1981.

The Clash first met Futura in May of the same year, while they were performing at Bond’s Casino, opposite Tin Pan Alley. Futura, who had been painting subway trains since the early 1970s, soon became part of the Clash camp. His artworks were exhibited in the Landmark New York exhibition at MoMA in February 1981, alongside pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe, thus primarily placing graffiti into the world of fine art.

Keith Haring (1958-1990)
Flowers 4, from Flowers 1-5, 1990

Keith Haring is one of a few artists who can be said to have epitomised the 80s art scene at an international level. From using the subway walls of New York City as his canvas, he went on to work and exhibit in several countries around the globe before his untimely death from AIDS in 1990.

Created that same year, months before his passing, Flowers 4 is one of five prints from the Flowers 1-5 series, quite different in style from some of his most well-known works – and yet unmistakably a Haring. His seemingly childish, simple designs were purposefully so: to create visual imagery that was recognisable at once, ensuring his notoriety as well as the impact of the socio-political messages he’d want to share with the greatest possible audience.

Some have said the Flowers 1-5 series were evocative of Haring’s coming to terms with his illness and its tragic consequences: done in semi-abstract expressionist style, the ink dripping as if there was no time to let it settle, the style is hurried and bold, bursting with ambiguous energy and a continued proof of Haring’s genial creativity.

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Louis Vuitton x Stephen Sprouse
A Pair of Neon Graffiti Monogram High-Top Trainers, SS/2001

When Louis Vuitton’s Creative Director Marc Jacobs invited punk artist Stephen Sprouse to design a collection of handbags, it was the fashion house’s first ever artist collaboration in their more than 100-year old history, but it certainly was not their last.

In 2001, Sprouse daubed the Louis Vuitton's heritage monogram canvas with neon graffiti, a collection that was widely considered to reinvigorate the brand and reach a new, younger, clientele.

The Graffiti collection remains one of Louis Vuitton’s most popular art collaborations. These high-top trainers were produced in extremely limited numbers and perfectly capture the blending of street art and urban culture with high fashion.

JR (b.1983)
North Korea, Pyongyang, Shadows, 2012

JR is a renowned French street artist and photographer known for his large-scale public art installations. He gained global recognition for his “Inside Out” project, which features massive portraits of local residents pasted in public spaces worldwide, promoting community and unity.

JR’s work blurs the lines between art, activism and social engagement, often addressing issues like identity, migration and human rights. His striking black-and-white imagery, portraying ordinary people, challenges viewers to question preconceptions and explore the power of art to spark meaningful conversations.

North Korea, Pyongyang, Shadows, 2012 is an important example of JR’s immersive practice. His visit to North Korea was, he explained, his most frightening visit: the lack of street art and graffiti signalled that people were not able to express their views freely, highlighting the censorship from the government and pushing people and their views into the shadows.

Stik (b.1979)
Sleeping Baby (NHS Blue), 2015

Stik is one of the UK’s most acclaimed street artists and his beloved figures – who first started appearing around his East London neighbourhood in the early 2000s – can now also be found in places like Norway, the United States and Jordan.

Sleeping Baby (NHS Blue) is an impression from a series Stik created in 2015 to raise funds for Homerton Hospital in Hackney, London. A limited edition of the print in several colour variants (25 in each colour) was created and sold, with people coming in from all over Britain to acquire one, some queuing overnight. As Stik said in an interview at the time: “Bear in mind this is an NHS department that’s dealt with MRSA, the Olympics and the riots – and even they were caught out by the response!”

The prints are based on his mural of the same name, painted on the wall of the hospital and unveiled alongside the release of the prints. Stik said the sleeping baby represents the NHS itself and calls for attention to its vulnerability as an institution. The Sleeping Baby image was further used the following year across placards in the Junior Doctor’s strike, with slogans calling to protect the NHS.

This work epitomises the powerful impact street art can have in society, with catchy visuals and colours, using the street as a canvas to reach the greatest audience possible. Keith Haring was doing it already in the 1980s, with his anti-crack mural in NYC and his campaign destigmatising AIDS. Despite its seemingly serene design, the present work inscribed itself within the greater narrative of political street art.

Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama
A Monogram Pumpkin Neverfull MM, 2023

Yayoi Kusama first collaborated with Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton in 2012 with a collection of bags featuring her iconic ‘Infinity Dots’ design. A decade later, a new collaboration was released, featuring Infinity Dots (in both monochrome and painterly multicolour splashes) and Pumpkins in pastel shades layered over Louis Vuitton's monogram canvas.

This second iteration of the collaboration was highly anticipated and widely marketed. The much-hyped unveiling of the collection at Harrods in Knightsbridge saw the building covered in Infinity Dots, life-sized and eerily life-like animatronic models of Kusama herself in the windows, and a 15m high statue of the artist.

ABOTZ (b. 1993)
Untitled, 2023

ABOTZ is a London-based graffiti artist inspired by the environment he grew up in. This shop front shutter comes from a project curated by the Camdenonium Collective, which shines a light on the UK graffiti scene in a truly unique way. By bringing the street inside, their aim is to tell the story of places, residents and individuals that make up the city’s character and personality today, whilst educating people on an art form which has become a truly global community.

Bonhams is so excited to be offering this type of graffiti in a formal auction setting and become a part of this ever-evolving community.

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