Keith Haring - Evening & Day Editions London Wednesday, June 7, 2023 | Phillips

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  • Captured in 1970, a twelve-year-old Keith Haring leans against a porch column in his hometown of Kutztown, Pennsylvania, dressed in a suit and tie with thick rimmed glasses. Taken by his father, Allen, the photograph was used on the invitations for the artist’s 1988 exhibition Recent Work at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York. Shafrazi had represented Haring since the early 1980s, with the artist transforming the exhibition space into a club-like environment for his first one-man show with the gallerist in 1982. Due to the artist’s premature death in 1990, Recent Work would be Haring’s final exhibition at the gallery during his lifetime.

     

    The present lot - annotated ‘For George’ and amusingly embellished with a phallus - was the personalised Recent Work exhibition invite from Haring to the esteemed publisher George Mulder of George Mulder Fine Arts. Mulder published many seminal editions by some of the twentieth century’s most important artists, partnering with Andy Warhol for his iconic Reigning Queens (1985) series, and collaborating with David Hockney on several prints in the mid-1990s. For Haring, Mulder published Andy Mouse (1986) and Apocalypse (1988) – two of the young artist’s most celebrated portfolios. A memento of their professional partnership, Haring’s humorous felt-tip pen additions to Mulder’s Recent Work invitation exemplify their jovial relationship. Mulder was so fond of this comical sketch by Haring that he reportedly positioned the work on his desk, where it was often admired at meetings by visiting artists and collectors. 

    • Provenance

      George Mulder Estate
      Private Collection
      Oliver Clatworthy Fine Art (label verso of frame)

    • 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. 

      View More Works

164

Untitled (Recent Work Invitation)

1988
Unique drawing in black felt-tip pen, on pigment printed wove card, with full margins.
I. 13.7 x 9.3 cm (5 3/8 x 3 5/8 in.)
S. 14.3 x 10.2 cm (5 5/8 x 4 in.)

Signed, dated and dedicated 'For George' in black felt-tip pen (dedicated to George Mulder of George Mulder Fine Arts), the card produced as the invitation for the Recent Works exhibition held at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, 3 December 1988 to 7 January 1989, framed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£2,000 - 3,000 

Sold for £6,350

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Evening & Day Editions

London Auction 7 - 8 June 2023