Silence = Death

Medium: Screen-print in colors on heavy wove paper
Year: 1989
Image: 33×33 inches (83.8 x 83.8 cm)
Sheet: 39×39 inches (99.1 x 99.1 cm)
Edition: 200
Artist’s Proofs: 25
Publisher: George Mulder Fine Arts, New York, for the Arts Outreach Fund for AIDS
Publisher: The Outreach Fund for AIDS
Literature: Littmann p. 152

Signed, dated and numbered  in pencil with the publisher’s copyright ink stamp verso and the artist’s iguana blindstamp

Silence Equals Death is a remarkable work completed in the final year of the Keith Haring’s life. The work is an adaptation of the iconic political poster for the Silence=Death Project, a collective from which the title of this work is derived. This poster, which featured a bright pink triangle atop a solid black background, was a central image in the organization’s activist campaign against the AIDS epidemic.

The image of the pink triangle was first used by Nazi Germany to identify gay men and transgender women. It has since been reclaimed by the LGBTQ community as a symbol of gay pride. Haring’s version of the prominent poster features a large pink triangle that dominates nearly the entire composition and is surrounded by solid black. Renderings in silver ink of numerous figures which illustrate the pictorial maxim “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” are overlaid across the entire composition.

This work expresses extreme discontent with the silence of the Reagan administration’s suppression of discussion of the AIDS crisis which caused thousands of deaths in the queer community. This work was completed one year after the artist’s tragic AIDS diagnosis and just months before his death in 1990.

Auction Results

Heritage Auctions: 24 October 2023
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 65,625

KEITH HARING
Silence = Death, 1989
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Signed, editioned 67/100 and dated in pencil, lower right

Swann Galleries: 26 July 2023
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 40,000
USD 65,000

KEITH HARING
Silence = Death, 1989
Color screen-print on smooth wove paper
Signed, dated and numbered 152/200 in pencil, lower right
With an iguana blind stamp, lower left

Christie’s New-York: 24 October 2018
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 43,750

KEITH HARING (1958-1990)
Silence = Death, 1989
Screen-print in colors on heavy wove paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 93/200
(there were also 25 artist’s proofs)

Sotheby’s New-York: 22 October 2018
Estimated: USD 18,000 – 24,000
USD 25,000

KEITH HARING
Silence = Death (L. p. 152), 1989
Screen-print in colors on heavy wove paper
Signed in pencil, dated and numbered 115/200
(total edition includes 25 artist’s proofs)