Three Eyed Monster from Icons, (Littmann P. 171) by Keith Haring features a grinning lime-green face with three arched eyes set against a vivid orange border.

The work forms part of the Icons portfolio, one of Haring’s final print projects, where he isolated some of the most recognisable motifs from his broader body of work into singular images. The monster figure had appeared repeatedly throughout his subway drawings, paintings and public murals during the 1980s, often functioning as a symbol of mutation, energy, transformation or psychic intensity. Here, the additional eye introduces a subtle sense of distortion that disrupts the otherwise symmetrical structure of the face, giving the image its distinctive tension. The silkscreen with embossment process enhances the physical presence of the work whilst preserving the flat graphic clarity central to Haring’s imagery.

Unlike many earlier prints, the embossed surface introduces a tactile quality that reinforces the object-like nature of the work without reducing its immediacy. The influence of public signage, comic imagery and street graphics remains evident throughout, allowing the work to communicate with the same instant readability that defined Haring’s subway-era drawings. Three Eyed Monster continues to be among the most visually striking images from the Icons portfolio, combining graphic simplicity, saturated colour and symbolic ambiguity within a radically reduced work. Bold, confrontational and unmistakably Haring, the work captures the raw energy and communicative force that made his imagery one of the defining styles of the 1980s.

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