Keith Haring - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, April 19, 2022 | Phillips

Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 19 - 21 April 2022

  • Literature

    Klaus Littmann pp. 174-183

  • Catalogue Essay

    The Blueprint Drawings

    These 17 drawings were created over a period of a few weeks between December 1980 and January 1981. The original drawings were executed on vellum with Sumi ink because I intended to make blueprint copies of each of the drawings. Periodically I would take my drawings to the local blueprinters, where I had much enjoyment trying to explain the content of these works to the men who operated the blueprint machines. After a few weeks, everyone in the shop was familiar with my drawings. This was also the time I began drawing in the NYC subways.

    The drawings were exhibited in a small gallery space at Westbeth Painter’s Space in February 1981. It was my first one-man exhibition in New York City. The exhibition lasted for one week, during which time I sold several blueprint copies of the drawings, but no original drawings. Since then many of the drawings have been sold and I don’t know their whereabouts. However, before I sold any of them I made photostats of each of the drawings. These prints were made from those stats. They form a perfect time capsule of my beginning in New York City.

    Keith Haring
    New York City
    4 January 1990

  • 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. 

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Keith Haring

The Blueprint Drawings (L. pp. 174-183)

1990
The complete set of 17 screenprints, on Arches Cover paper, with full margins, with justification, all contained in the original wood portfolio box with screenprinted artist's name, title and date.
smallest I. 39 x 42 in. (99.1 x 106.7 cm)
largest S. 42 1/2 x 79 in. (108 x 200.7 cm)
All signed, dated and numbered 14/33 in pencil, published by Durham Press, Durham, Pennsylvania (with their blindstamp), all unframed.

Estimate
$275,000 - 350,000 

Sold for $554,400

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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 19 - 21 April 2022