1969 Super Sport Camaro: A New Print Drop from Lady Pink

When the gavel dropped on LADY PINK's iconic 1984 painting, 1969 Super Sport Camaro, it was already famed for being part of Keith Haring's personal collection. But the 2020 auction also set a record for PINK's work, and solidified her as not only one of the legendary figures of the early 1980's NYC graffiti scene, but as one of the pivotal female painters of the latter half of the 20th century. 


(LADY PINK'S 1969 SUPER SPORT CAMARO INSTALLED AT SOTHEBY'S NEW YORK GALLERIES. IMAGE COURTESY OF SOTHEBY'S)

 
BEYOND THE STREETS is excited to release 1969 Super Sport Camaro as print edition, a work created at a pivotal point in Pink's career.  Pink had worked in the studio of who would become one of the seminal artists of our era, Jenny Holzer. Pink and Holzer's collaborative works, featuring the latter's text—based poems and Pink's figurative street scenes of graffiti and city life. 

(BTS x Lady Print 1969 Super Sport Camaro print)

This piece was inspired by the scene on the Lower East Side, before it was cleaned up and gentrified. PINK would travel to Jenny Holzer’s, right off of Houston Street, and would be witness to all the colorful people who came out at night. "It wasn’t pleasant. It was full of hookers and drug addicts. It was the stuff you heard about but to see it was pretty shocking.” People have referred to Pink’s work during this time as her coming-of-age era, filled with disillusioning real world experiences. It was her first time seeing real life hookers and coming to understand that reality as a young woman. There was a distinct duality to the experience—relating to the women and seeing them as beautiful and well-paid with the coexisting disparity linked to their prostitution.

Holzer herself gave Pink large canvases to paint on, one of which would go on to become 1969 Super Sport Camaro. The prostitutes in the painting were based observations Pink made on the streets outside of Holzer's studio, a reminder of sorts of the evolution of NYC over the last nearly 40 years. That the work ended up in the collection of Keith Haring is telling of the work's importance, and a recent collaboration with Supreme featuring Camaro has returned the status of the work as a cultural icon.

Shop the 1969 Super Sport Camaro available on on shop now!