Untitled (Medusa) (Littmann PP. 54–55) occupies a distinctive position within Keith Haring’s printed oeuvre. Produced in collaboration with Danish printer Niels Borch Jensen, the work pushed both artist and printer into new territory, resulting in one of the most ambitious graphic projects either had undertaken at that point.

Created across three aquatint plates, the composition stretches nearly two and a half metres in width. The scale is unusual within Haring’s printmaking practice and allows the image to operate with a physical presence more commonly associated with mural painting. Rather than directing the viewer toward a single focal point, the composition unfolds across the sheet as a continuous sequence of interconnected figures, limbs and faces.

The title references Medusa, the mythological Gorgon whose image has appeared throughout Western art for centuries. Haring does not attempt a literal retelling of the myth. Instead, he transforms the subject into a sprawling network of bodies that divide, multiply and merge into one another. Heads emerge from torsos, limbs extend into neighbouring forms and individual figures become difficult to separate from the larger whole. The result is an image that feels perpetually in motion despite its monumental scale.

The work was conceived during Haring’s visit to Copenhagen in 1985, where he met master printer Niels Borch Jensen. Working directly onto prepared plates, Haring completed the imagery with remarkable speed and confidence. The absence of preparatory drawings is evident in the finished print, which retains the immediacy and certainty associated with his public murals and subway drawings.

By the mid-1980s, Haring had become one of the defining artistic voices of his generation. His imagery had developed into a universally recognisable visual shorthand capable of addressing subjects ranging from power and authority to community, sexuality and social change. In Untitled (Medusa), these concerns are distilled into a single overwhelming image whose expanding forms suggest growth, transformation and collective energy.

The print also marks an important moment within the history of contemporary printmaking. It was among the earliest large-format projects produced by Borch Jensen and demonstrated the possibilities of collaboration between artists working on an architectural scale and specialist print workshops. Decades later, the work remains one of the most visually commanding prints in Haring’s catalogue raisonné and a significant example of his ability to translate the urgency of drawing into the medium of print.

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