Andy Mouse 3 is a 1986 screenprint on paper by Keith Haring. Capturing the essence of pop art and street culture in the 1980s, the painting is a strikingly eccentric amalgamation of two cultural icons: the renowned artist and pop culture icon Andy Warhol and the beloved Disney character, Mickey Mouse. The composition’s vibrancy and dynamism highlights Haring’s signature style of bold lines, flat shapes, and bright colors.

In this artwork, Haring depicts Mickey Mouse as Warhol’s alter ego. Transformed from cute to cool, the friendly rodent-mascot is styled with Warhol’s trademark white hair and glasses, and placed smack-dab in the center of a bill as a fuzzy-eared embodiment of wealth and capitalism. Haring’s signature neutral figures hold up the bill with surrounding gestural marks indicating a heaviness to the usually light dollar. Decoding Haring’s hieroglyphic-inspired message in Andy Mouse 3 places a slight tonal heaviness in the artwork, too, that is suggestive of the lasting domination that Disney, Andy, and other like mainstream brands continue to have over the population’s pocketbooks.

Beyond its pop culture references, Andy Mouse 3 also explores Haring’s engagement with political and social issues of the time. Haring was known for using his art as a means of activism, advocating for AIDS awareness, LGBTQ+ rights, and other progressive causes. The use of a dotted ground surface in his paintings, like the one depicted in Andy Mouse 3, often alluded to the HIV/AIDS crisis and its constantly permeating effect on all areas of society. The sum of Andy Mouse 3’s parts act as a time capsule of the significant cultural and political climate of the 1980s, and can be read as an enduring commentary on the influence and commodification of pop culture.