57
Keith Haring
Self-Portrait
- Estimate
- $120,000 - 180,000
$149,000
Lot Details
Painted aluminum
1989
24 1/4 x 25 in. (61.6 x 63.5 cm)
signed, dated `1989' and numbered 4/10 on the base.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
“[Sculpture] has a kind of power that a painting doesn't have. You can't burn it. It would survive a nuclear blast probably. It has this permanent, real feeling that will exist much, much longer than I will ever exist, so it's a kind of immortality. All of it I guess, to a degree, is like that... All of the things that you make are a kind of quest for immortality” (K. Haring, quoted in Flash Art, March 1984, p. 22).
Exhibited
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.
Browse ArtistThroughout 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.