"Barking Dog" Keychain

"Barking Dog" plexiglass keychain. Dimensions: 10x6 cm

Keith Haring's "Barking Dog" motif — featuring colorful dogs with their mouths open mid-bark — is one of the street artist’s most recognizable symbols and remains a testament to his dedication to accessible art.

The simple, cartoon-like shape of the dog alludes to Haring’s interest in Egyptian hieroglyphs — an example of how people communicate their experiences through universal shapes and signs.

Haring's "Barking Dogs" can be found throughout his oeuvre, from his early subway tags to merchandise sold in the artist’s PoP Shops. In 1990, just months before his untimely death, Haring chose to immortalize the "Barking Dog" motif alongside four of his most famous symbols in a series of lithographs titled "icons," solidifying the graphic canine as one of the most important symbols in his work.