KEITH HARING
Untitled, 1985
Oil and acrylic on canvas
Diameter: 36 inches (91.4 cm)
Signed and dated “K. Haring OCT. 17-85 ⊕©” on the reverse

Provenance
Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1985

 

Phillips New-York: 23 June 2021
USD 1,482,000

Source: Phillips
Keith Haring – 20th Century & Contempor… Lot 47 June 2021 | Phillips

 

 

Acquired directly from Haring’s primary dealer and friend Tony Shafrazi, Keith Haring’s Untitled belongs to a discrete series of tondo canvases painted in 1985. Grappling with themes of inequality and power, the present composition depicts an outstretched figure being plucked apart by the hands of higher forces. While studying at the School of Visual Arts, Haring developed his highly recognizable figurative style that evidences his interest in semiotics, or the study of signs, to interrogate the ability for images to communicate meaning by stripping them down to their most rudimentary forms. Coalescing the lighthearted appeal of cartoon imagery with the raw energy Jean Dubuffet’s Art Brut, Untitled embodies Haring’s investigations on the systems of power in contemporary culture expressed through simplified, bold outlines. A leitmotif in Haring’s oeuvre, the X-sign on the figure’s stomach signifies a target of anti-establishment, exemplifying Haring’s thematic explorations on social inequity and subjugation.

 

“I think as much as possible, an artist, if he has any kind of social or political concern, has to try to cut through those things, and to expose as much as possible what he sees so that some people think about things that they don’t normally think about.”

n this work, as well as in his monumental Ten Commandments from the same year, Haring reinterprets the dogma of Christianity by inverting its messaging. In an interview about the Ten Commandment series, Haring stated, “The way I worked on the Ten Commandments is: even though it says ‘thou shalt not steal,’ the picture I show is someone stealing: the antithesis. I present what not to do instead of saying ‘this is what you should do.”ⁱ  Reflecting Haring’s interest in subverting religious imagery, the X-sign also symbolizes a cross. In Untitled, Haring carries the religious reference further in the shape of a tondo—a format widely popularized during the Italian High Renaissance and intertwined with the history of Christianity. By infusing this allusion in the work’s very compositional form, Haring communicates his message to viewers with a striking dual force.

 

Often utilized as a motif in classical architecture, the tondo aligned with Haring’s interest in bringing high art into the everyday world. A keen student of art history, Haring may have been inspired to use the circular canvas after a visit to Italy on the occasion of his exhibition at Galleria Salvatore Ala in 1984. In Untitled, Haring adapted his iconic lexicon of signs and symbols to the circular format to make his activist message both universally legible and his own. In the words of Timothy Leary, “Keith [was] a child of Marshall McLuhan, who said, ‘The medium is the message.’ For Keith, his medium is his message.”ⁱⁱ