Keith Haring Untitled Etchings (1989) Portfolio For Sale: Facts | Meaning | Market Demand

Haring made these three untitled etchings in 1989, when etching occupied him alongside The Valley, his collaboration with William S. Burroughs. They are drawn in fine contour line on white paper, a long way from the bold, colourful figures of his Pop Shop prints, and each distorts the human figure: a densely worked, almost Cubist portrait, a crucified figure without a face, and a running man with exaggerated thighs and feet.

All three deal with oppression. The portrait, which appears to be of an African-American man, is a rare departure for an artist who said his figures have no race, age or sex. Scissors, stars, knives, skulls, peace signs and a noose that merges into a dollar sign fill the space around it, and the noose recalls the Free South Africa lithographs of 1985. The crucified figure has INRI written on the cross, blood running from the arms and crosses floating in the air, and its body is covered in markings that recall tribal art, as Haring had painted the bodies of Bill T. Jones and Grace Jones in the 1980s. In the third, a man runs through a desert with one hand still tied with rope, heat lines blazing around him. The crucifixion had been a subject in Haring’s work since his early drawings, which Robert Farris Thompson described as showing people “literally hit over the head with Jesus”. Haring grew up in a Christian family and was part of the Jesus movement as a teenager, but later turned from religion to social and political activism. For collectors, the etchings are rare works from the year before his death and a counterpoint to the colour and playfulness he is known for.

For more information or to buy Keith Haring Untitled Etchings, contact our specialists via info@alexyellop.com. Discover more Keith Haring signed prints for sale or find out more about selling your Keith Haring prints.