Keith Haring - Contemporary Art Evening Sale New York Friday, March 4, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York; Galerie Paul Maenz, Cologne; Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Exhibited

    Cologne, Galerie Paul Maenz, Keith Haring, May 3-30, 1984; Berlin, Daimlerchrysler Contemporary, Private/Corporate: Werke aus der Daimler Kunst Sammlung: Ein Dialog (Private/ Corporate; Works from the Daimler Art Collection: A Dialogue), May 28-July 21, 2002, p. 34

  • Literature

    P. Maenz, Keith Haring at Paul Maenz, Cologne, 1984, p. 5; Galerie P. Maenz, Ausstellungs- saison (Exhibition Season) 1983-84, Cologne, 1984, p. 13; G. Celant and I. Gianelli, Keith Haring, Milan, 1994, p. 37; Private/Corporate: Werke aus der Daimler Kunst: Ein Dialog (Private/ Corporate: Works from the Daimler Art Collection: A Dialogue), Daimlerchrysler Contemporary, Berlin, 2002, p. 34

  • Catalogue Essay

    “The three-eyed Face, another of Haring’s figures which appears repeatedly, and was on the cover of the catalogue for Keith Haring’s first one-man exhibition, which took place in 1982 at Tony Shafrazi’s New York gallery, in some way first establishes the uncompromising positive element, and carries it straight through to the unmentioned dark side.  Haring has always followed this train of thought exactly and assimilated it, which is why his most commercial and apparently most characterless happy little figures never achieved the complete moral emptiness of Disney figures, for instance” (R. Melcher, “Keith Haring Heaven and Hell,” Keith Haring Heaven and Hell,  Germany, 2001, p. 22).

  • 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

24

Untitled

1984
Acrylic on canvas.
59 3/4 x 59 3/4 in. (151.8 x 151.8 cm).
Signed and dated “© K. Haring APRIL 13, 1984” on the overlap. The Keith Haring Studio, LLC will provide the purchaser with a certificate of authenticity.

Estimate
$300,000 - 400,000 

Sold for $386,500

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

4 March 2011
New York