NZ & International Fine Art - Part One Wednesday, 21 April 2021 - 6:00 PM start

Keith Haring (1958-1990) - Pop Shop I (Best Buddies)

Lot Details

Keith Haring (1958-1990) Pop Shop I (Best Buddies) screenprint, limited edition 28/200 (with 20 additional APs) signed 'K. Haring 87' (lower right); certificate of authenticity from Hamilton-Selway Fine Art, West Hollywood, California 28 x 37cm (within frame) Haring's art and life typified youthful exuberance and fearlessness. While seemingly playful and transparent, Haring dealt with weighty subjects such as death, sex and war, enabling subtle and multiple interpretations. Throughout his tragically brief career, Haring refined a visual language of symbols, which he called icons, the origins of which began with his trademark linear style scrawled in white chalk on the black unused advertising spaces in subway stations. Haring developed and disseminated these icons far and wide, in his vibrant and dynamic style, from public murals and paintings to t-shirts and Swatch watches. His art bridged high and low, erasing the distinctions between rarefied art, political activism and popular culture. Pop Shop I by Keith Haring is a suite of four silkscreen prints on paper created by Keith Haring in 1987. These four prints by Keith Haring are each available in editions of 200. Keith Haring is recognised for his exclusive use of black and white, and typical use of primary colours, the figures were simplified, and easily recognisable as his. They formed glyphs that could be read, like an urban, tribal language. “Here’s the philosophy behind the Pop Shop: I wanted to continue the same sort of communication as with the subway drawings. I wanted to attract the same wide range of people and I wanted it to be a place where, yes, not only collectors could come, but also kids from the Bronx… this was still an art statement.” – Keith Haring