Untitled (Medusa Head)

Medium: Aquatint on Hahnemühle paper
Year: 1986
Image: 501/2 x 93 3/4  inches (128.2 x 238.1 cm)
Sheet: 54 1/4 x 97 3/4 inches (138.5 x 248.3 cm)
Edition: 24
Publisher: Niels Borch Jensen Editions, Copenhagen
Literature: Littmann pp. 54-55

Signed, dated and numbered in pencil

 

Medusa Head is a modern reinterpretation of the Greek tale of Medusa, a terrifying creature whose hair consisted of snakes and with a look capable of turning bystanders into stone. Haring, who witnessed the deadly effects of AIDS, saw the mythical monster as an appropriate symbol of the disease that killed healthy young men in the blink of an eye. The work is rendered in Haring’s trademark linear style. It shows a hydra-like figure, whose broad neck branches out into seven tentacles with attached – and stuck – bouncing bodies that spread over the pictorial surface.

Caravaggio, Medusa, 1595-1596, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.Expressing himself through an easily accessible imagery with bold lines and iconic symbols, Haring managed to explore complex themes founded on culturally subversive attitudes toward sexuality, gender, religion, and politics and to engage and encourage by-passers in an important dialogue about taboos excluded from the public debate. Apart from his visual endeavors he was also known to be a social activist fighting for gay rights, against racial discrimination and for AIDS awareness.

Since establishing his workshop in 1979, Niels Borch Jensen has achieved great recognition worldwide, and is respected for his knowledge and professional skills within the classic graphic techniques. Borch Jensen met Keith Haring in the summer of 1985, when Haring visited Copenhagen to contribute with a mural to the exhibition “Homo Decorens” at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and they decided to start collaborating. It became Niels Borch Jensen’s first large-scale print project, and the biggest print Keith Haring ever created.

 

 

Auction Results

Bruun Rasmussen: 17 September 2024
Estimated: DKK 500,000 – 600,000
Hammer: SEK 600,000
DKK 792,000 / USD 115,284

KEITH HARING (b. Kunztown, Pennsylvania 1958, d. New York 1990)
Untitled (Medusa), 1986
Sugar lift aquatint on Hahnemühle Bütten 300g
Sheet: 137×248 cm
Signed K. Haring 86, 14/24

Christie’s New-York: 16 April 2024
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 151,200

KEITH HARING (1958-1990)
Untitled (Medusa), 1986
Aquatint on Hahnemühle paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 11⁄24

Christie’s online: 30 July 2020
Estimated: USD 60,000 – 80,000
USD 150,000

KEITH HARING (1958-1990)
Medusa Head, 1986
Aquatint on Hahnemühle paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 12/24

Heritage Auctions: 24 May 2015
USD 52,500

KEITH HARING
Medusa Head, 1986
Aquatint on Hahnemulhe paper
Signed, dated and numbered ‘5/24’ in pencil on lower right margin

Christie’s New-York: 29 October 2013
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 37,500

KEITH HARING (1958-1990)
Medusa Head, 1986
Aquatint on Hahnemühle paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 11/24