Keith Haring - Evening & Day Editions New York Tuesday, April 23, 2019 | Phillips
  • Literature

    Klaus Littmann p. 184-85

  • Catalogue Essay

    Three friends, Keith Haring, Chris Murray and Anthony Shriver, turned a friendship formed at the Govinda Gallery, which was just steps from Georgetown University, into a lasting legacy. When Anthony Shriver, the nephew of President Kennedy, founded the Best Buddies organization he turned to his friends from the gallery where he hosted organizational meetings and planned fundraisers. Best Buddies enlisted university students to help create opportunities for people with developmental disabilities. Haring acquiesced to his friends’ request that he design a logo for the organization. The artist also agreed to make a print of the image in order to help with raising additional funds. Keith Haring died before he was able to sign the edition. Best Buddies was the artist’s last print and it helped to raise over $500,000, leaving a lasting gift for the organization and the many lives touched by it.

    Phillips is honored to offer this last impression of the edition from the personal collection of Chris Murray, who was gifted the piece by Keith Haring in recognition of his support and friendship.

  • 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

89

Best Buddies

1990
Screenprint in colors, on wove paper, with full margins.
I. 22 x 27 5/8 in. (55.9 x 70.2 cm)
S. 26 x 32 in. (66 x 81.3 cm)

Titled and numbered 9/200 on the front in pencil, additionally signed by Julia Gruen, the executor of the Keith Haring Foundation, dated and numbered on the reverse, unframed.

Estimate
$18,000 - 25,000 

Sold for $37,500

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Kip Eischen
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Evening & Day Editions

New York Auction 23 April 2019