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John Sex, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Keith Haring, 1984. Image: © Ben Buchanan Keith Haring’s Untitled (For John Sex) is an electric composition packed with vibrant color and energetic dynamism that was a personal gift to one of the artist’s closest friends, John McLoughlin, better known by his stage name, John Sex. The present work is rendered in Haring’s signature lexicon of symbols and cyphers and depicts a figure hammering a cross into the ground, perhaps a reference to Club 57—the critical locale that would nurture their careers as well as their close friendship. Created in January 1982, just months before Haring's breakout inclusion alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol at documenta 7 in Kassel and his first solo show at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, the work encapsulates the vivacious energy of the 1980s New York art scene.
"[John Sex] was very like Keith, because he was far ahead of everyone else."
—Samantha McEwenHaring moved to New York in the late 1970s after enrolling in the School of Visual Arts, where he met Kenny Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and John Sex, who studied graphic design at the school and later launched a successful career as a performance artist. On first meeting Haring, Sex recalled, “There was this little gallery space on the first floor, and Keith had painted it from floor to ceiling. I looked at it and said, “This person is really doing something!”i Although Sex “had achieved a reputation as the leading poster artist of the East Village” by the summer of 1980, he “got sick of doing posters for other people....I started making posters of myself and putting them on the street.”ii That same summer, Sex and Haring made 500 Xerox posters for Gay Pride Week and posted them around the city, just before Haring took his drawings to the streets and subways of New York that fall. That same summer, Sex also collaborated with Basquiat, creating a painting that Basquiat frisbeed into the street, on which Scharf reflected, “Jean-Michel was making a painting with John Sex, and they made this wet oil painting and cars were driving over it – it was so cool and punk rock.”iii
A Club to Remember
Keith Haring performing in “Acts of Live Art” at Club 57, June 1980. Image: © Joseph Szkodzinski "A lot of people gravitated to Club 57 and they became the central figures of the scene. At the time, there was Kenny Scharf, John Sex, Drew Straub, and me, and we became inseparable."
—Keith HaringTheir time at the SVA proved to be a period of prolific experimentation that matched the fever of artistic activity prevalent in the East Village. As the downtown nightclub scene blossomed with the appearances of the Mudd Club, Danceteria, and particularly Club 57, Haring and his contemporaries began dominating New York’s underground creative communities where artists and intellectuals banded together in decadent parties exploring sexual liberation, psychedelics, and artistic freedom. Located at the basement of a church on St. Marks Place in the East Village, Club 57 transformed from religious property to a hedonistic temple home to creative activity by the rising artists of the ‘80s.As Ann Magnuson remarked, “[Club 57] at any given time...was a dance hall, a screening room, a watering hole, a theater lab, an art gallery, or a self-styled ‘let it all hang out’ encounter group. Sometimes it was all those things at once.”iv Haring curated erotic Day-Glo art shows and other visual arts exhibitions at Club 57, which would lead to his studio residency with P.S. 122 and his later curated shows at the Mudd Club. Haring recalled, “Club 57 not only meant dancing and drinking and sex and fun and craziness, but the beginning of a whole career as the organizer and curator of some really interesting art shows.”v
"[Club 57] became the neighborhood hangout....We hung out there almost every night, and it could get pretty wild." —Keith HaringSex became famous for his sensational performances at Club 57 and “went on from the club to become one of downtown’s leading men, performing [...] at bigger clubs like Danceteria, the Saint, and Limelight.”vi He also produced dynamic silkscreen posters for club events and organized the club’s most pivotal event series, “Acts of Live Art,” in which Haring performed permutation poetry while holding a television cutout.
Despite its short-lived existence between 1979 and 1983, Club 57 was “the louche headquarters for a now-legendary art movement,” drawing in the likes of Futura 2000, Klaus Nomi, Frank Holliday, Madonna, and other creative spirits.vii On the club’s significant impact, Jenny Schlenzka observed that “the compressed event calendar and closely packed space generated a creative pressure cooker, bringing together some of the generation’s most imaginative young artists and offering them opportunities to make new work collectively, and in front of supportive audiences, night after night.”viii Imbued with personal resonance and the explosive vitality of New York’s notorious underground arts community, Untitled (For John Sex) captures the ebullient world of Haring’s milieu.
A Look Into the ‘80s
Kenny Scharf, “CAROUSEL OF PROGRESS,” 1980. Starring: Keith Haring, John Sex, Van Chrome, Stacey Elkin, Katy K., Ann Magnuson, Paris Raves, Bruno Testore, Min Thometz, Oliver Sanchez, Coco Ugaz, Caroline C., Roger X
i Keith Haring, quoted in John Gruen, Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography, 1992, p. 50.
ii John Sex, quoted in Steven Hager, Art After Midnight: The East Village Scene, New York, 1986, p. 79.
iii Kenny Scharf, quoted in Rachel Cole Dalamangas, “Lessons of New York: Kenny Scharf, Part II,” Zing Magazine, May 2014, online.
iv Ann Magnuson, Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2017, p. 157.
v Keith Haring, quoted in John Gruen, Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography, 1992, p. 45.
vi Ron Magliozzi, Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2017, p. 19.
vii Brett Sokol, “Club 57, Late-Night Home of Basquiat and Haring, Gets a Museum-Worthy Revival,” The New York Times, October 26, 2017, online.
viii Jenny Schlenzka, Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2017, p. 107.
Provenance
John Sex (gifted by the artist)
Private Collection, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1987Exhibited
New York, Queens Museum; Normal, Illinois State University; Tampa Museum of Art, Keith Haring: Future Primeval, September 15, 1990 – August 21, 1991, p. 61 (illustrated)
Fondazione La Triennale di Milano, The Keith Haring Show, September 27, 2005 – January 29, 2006, no. 15, p. 174 (illustrated)
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Keith Haring: The Political Line, April 19 – August 18, 2013, no. 69, p. 310 (illustrated, p. 202)
Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, Keith Haring Jean-Michel Basquiat | Crossing Lines, December 1, 2019 – April 13, 2020, p. 250 (illustrated)Artist Biography
Keith Haring
American • 1958 - 1990
Haring'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.
Property of a Private New York Collector
Ο◆24
Untitled (For John Sex)
signed, dedicated and dated "FOR JOHN SEX K. Haring JAN. 24, 1982 ⨁" on the reverse
acrylic and Day-Glo on wood
23 1/4 x 23 1/4 in. (59.1 x 59.1 cm)
Executed in 1982.
Estimate
$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $899,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
Head of Auctions
New York
+1 212 940 1278
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 23 June 2021
1
Cinga Samson
Two piece 1
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $378,000
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2
Jadé Fadojutimi
Untitled
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $390,600
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3
Salman Toor
Fort Greene
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $478,800
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4
Avery Singer
Untitled
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $4,144,000
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5
Matthew Wong
The Reader
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $2,329,000
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6
Winston Churchill
The Moat, Breccles
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,845,000
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7
Matthew Wong
Field in a Dream
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $2,934,000
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8
Jean Dubuffet
L'homme à la toque
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,571,000
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9
Emily Mae Smith
Waiting Room
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $756,000
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10
Nicole Eisenman
Whatever Guy
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $840,700
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11
Norman Lewis
Abstract City
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,119,000
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12
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol
Bananas
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,300,000
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13
David Hockney
A Neat Lawn
Estimate $9,500,000 - 10,500,000
Sold for $11,000,000
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14
Vija Celmins
Untitled (Ocean)
Estimate $5,500,000 - 6,500,000
Sold for $7,748,000
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15
Carmen Herrera
Green and Orange
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,200,000
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16
This lot is no longer available.
17
Brice Marden
Elements III
Estimate $3,200,000 - 3,800,000
Sold for $5,233,000
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18
Amoako Boafo
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $655,200
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19
Titus Kaphar
Untitled III
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $1,058,500
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20
Amy Sherald
It Made Sense...Mostly In Her Mind
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $3,539,000
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21
Wayne Thiebaud
Winding River
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $9,809,000
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22
Mark Rothko
Untitled
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,700,000
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23
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Batman
Estimate $1,600,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,800,000
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24
Keith Haring
Untitled (For John Sex)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $899,000
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25
Takashi Murakami
Red Demon and Blue Demon with 48 Arhats
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $6,080,000
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26
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (940-2)
Estimate $4,500,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for $5,112,000
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27
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $3,902,000
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28
Willem de Kooning
East Hampton V
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $3,055,000
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29
Amy Sillman
Flower Giver
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $598,500
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30
Alexander Calder
Fourteen Black Leaves
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,300,000
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31
This lot is no longer available.
32
Julie Curtiss
Three Widows
Estimate $110,000 - 150,000
Sold for $466,200
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33
Norman Rockwell
My Mother (Soldier with French Woman)
Estimate $350,000 - 500,000
Sold for $504,000
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34
Richard Prince
Nurses Dormitory #3
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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35
Mickalene Thomas
Portrait of Jessica
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $1,542,500
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36
Andy Warhol
Mao
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,000,000
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37
Georg Baselitz
Drei Herzen (Three Hearts)
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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38
Carl Andre
36 Copper Square
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,692,000
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39
Robert Rauschenberg
Untitled (Elemental Sculpture)
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $315,000
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40
Bruce Nauman
Musical Chair
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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41
David Hammons
It’s Not Necessary
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $5,475,000
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42
Andy Warhol
Shadow (Double)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $877,000
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43
Toyin Ojih Odutola
Quality Control
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $340,200
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44
Robert Colescott
Gift of the Sea
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $504,000
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45
Dana Schutz
Swiss Family Traveling
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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46
Banksy
Love Is In The Air
Estimate $1,000,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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47
Keith Haring
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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48
Louise Bourgeois
Labyrinthine Tower
Estimate $550,000 - 750,000
Sold for $756,000
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49
Paul McCarthy
White Snow Dwarf (Doc)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $403,200
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50No Reserve
Jeff Koons
Gazing Ball (Demeter)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000 •
Sold for $998,000
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