
124
Keith Haring
Untitled, from Three Lithographs (L. p. 41)
- Estimate
- $50,000 - 70,000
S. 39 1/2 x 32 in. (100.3 x 81.3 cm)
Further Details
This lot comes from the collection of pioneering gallerist Brent Sikkema (1948-2024). Sikkema was renowned for championing the work of some of the principal artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including Kara Walker, Vik Muniz, Mark Bradford, Deana Lawson, and many others, and for broadening the market for Latin American art.
Mr. Sikkema studied photography and filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. After earning his BFA in 1970 he became director of traveling exhibitions, and later director of exhibitions, at the Visual Studies Workshop, the groundbreaking photographic collective in Rochester, New York. In 1976 he relocated to Boston where he worked for Vision Gallery, handling 19th and 20th century photography, later becoming its owner and maintaining an adventurous curatorial program. He made his first foray into the New York City gallery world in 1989, exhibiting in a temporary space. He opened a permanent gallery in 1991; called Wooster Gardens, it quickly became known as a premiere venue for contemporary art. In 1999, Sikkema moved the gallery to Chelsea, partnering with Michael Jenkins under the name Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Sikkema’s generous support inspired loyalty in the artists in his stable, many of whom chose to remain with the gallery even after receiving invitations from the larger mega-galleries.
Full-Cataloguing
Keith Haring
American | B. 1958 D. 1990Haring's art and life typified youthful exuberance and fearlessness. While seemingly playful and transparent, Haring dealt with weighty subjects such as death, sex and war, enabling subtle and multiple interpretations.
Throughout his tragically brief career, Haring refined a visual language of symbols, which he called icons, the origins of which began with his trademark linear style scrawled in white chalk on the black unused advertising spaces in subway stations. Haring developed and disseminated these icons far and wide, in his vibrant and dynamic style, from public murals and paintings to t-shirts and Swatch watches. His art bridged high and low, erasing the distinctions between rarefied art, political activism and popular culture.