Keith Haring - Aus: Pyramid - image-1

Lot 455 D

Keith Haring - Aus: Pyramid

Auction 1079 - overview Cologne
03.12.2016, 14:00 - Contemporary Art
Estimate: 30.000 € - 40.000 €
Result: 37.200 € (incl. premium)

Keith Haring

Aus: Pyramid
1989

Aluminium, anodised. 103.3 x 144.5 x 3 cm. Signed and dated (engraved) 'K.Haring 89', with artist's signum and inscribed 'P.P.' verso. With suspension device. One of two printer's proofs aside from the numbered edition of 30 (+ 6 A.P.). From the same-named four-part series. Edition Schellmann, Munich/New York (engraved edition note verso). - Minor traces of age.

The present work is a mirrored printer's proof, an unicum in this execution.

„Aside from Haring's brilliant sense of content and material, it is the natural motifs that make his oeuvre so extraordinary. On the surface, his drawings appear childishly simple, more like symbols than real drawings. They have to be jotted-down quickly and are intended for a hastily passing audience. Haring can complete a drawing in two minutes and then he runs down the platform to immediately draw the next one. His drawings are conceived to be grasped within a fraction of a second. […] The complete impact of his work results from the combination of the elements: context, material, pictorial language as well as its infiltration of the urban consciousness. Single sections may appear quite innocent but in their entirety, Keith Haring's works develop a rather menacing quality, conveying a feeling of imminent violence and sexual explosion. They are a spectacle of the city's collective unconsciousness, a city which acts carefree but which only just escapes the fate of transforming into the 'dog eat dog'-world of Haring's paintings”. (Elisabeth Sussman (ed.), K. Haring, Cologne 1998, p. 84-88)

Certificate

We would like to thank Edition Schellmann, Munich, for the helpful information.

Literature

Jörg Schellmann (ed.), Edition Schellmann 1969-2009, Ostfildern 2009, p.147 with colour illus. (illus. of a different copy)