Hervé Di Rosa met Keith Haring during his first visit to the United States in 1982, while participating in a group show at Holly Solomon gallery. During this trip, Di Rosa met and befriended the art critic and artist Nicolas Mouffarege who would drive Di Rosa to Haring’s studio.

“At this time, in France,” Di Rosa says, “the weight of older artists, often professors at [École nationale supérieure des] Beaux-Arts, a certain academism was very strong! I felt reassured to meet artists of my age who had the same culture and references as mine. Keith Haring was always the kindest of them all. He invited me to all his parties!”

Di Rosa returned to Europe but would come back to live in New York and work at PS1 in 1983-1984 after receiving the Villa Medicis Hors Les Murs grant. He then had a solo show at Barbara Gladstone Gallery followed by another at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, where he would often meet Keith and Nicolas. They also both took part in New Attitudes: Paris/New York at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in 1984 together with several of the Club 57 artists, including Tseng Kwong Chi, Kenny Scharf, Samantha McEwen and Ann Magnuson. “I keep incredible memories of these years,” Di Rosa says of the time.

As with many other of Haring’s contemporaries, he traded works with Di Rosa, among which include this and a second work being offered as part of Dear Keith. Di Rosa executed both works during his stay in New York. Of these the artist says “one of them is a painting representing 'Dr. Tube', one of the characters of the mythology I created in the 80s. They continue to haunt my paintings until now.”