Keith Haring - Wired: Online Auction London Monday, April 15, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “My contribution to the world is my ability to draw. I will draw as much as I can for as many people as I can for as long as I can. Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic.”
    —Keith Haring

    Merging the styles of graffiti with traditional art practices, Keith Haring‘s work seeks to explore all the complexities of the human experience. Through his acclaimed style of simplifying the human form, as well as using repetitive motifs, he creates a visual language that is both universal and relatable. With some of his subject matter depicting dancing figures and fantastical creatures, Haring provides the viewer with a form of escapism from reality.  

     

    The present example is no exception as it shows a curious metamorphosis between man and duck - a reference perhaps to Haring’s childhood fascination with animated figures like Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck.The composition depicts the transformed figure surrounded by a group of Haring’s iconic faceless characters, their emotions and movements conveyed only through lines and gestures. The metamorphosised man holds a stick, a motif often seen in Haring’s work as a symbol of violence or magic, as it could be used as a weapon or as a source of power that activates the figures surrounding it.  

     

    Untitled (1983) remains a testament to Haring's unique artistic practice and ability to create a universal visual language. His work aims to unify viewers as they contemplate the similarities between their shared human experience. 

     

    iDavid Galloway, ‘Drawing the Line: The Graphic Legacy of Keith Haring’, The Keith Haring Foundation, 2005, online 

    • Provenance

      Outsiders Galerie, Rouen
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • 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

Property from a Private Collection​

8

Untitled

signed, dedicated and dated 'FOR JIM - K.Haring '82' lower right
felt tip pen on paper
20.5 x 28.2 cm (8 1/8 x 11 1/8 in.)
Executed in 1982.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£12,000 - 18,000 

Sold for £38,100

Contact Specialist

Louise Simpson
Associate Specialist, Head of Online Sale
+44 7887 473 568
lsimpson@phillips.com

Wired: Online Auction

15 - 24 April 2024