Lithograph Edition: 941/1000

28 × 21 cm. 11 x 8 1/4 in.

Numbered on bottom left; stamped with World Federation of United Nations Associations and Emiliano Sorini Studio on bottom right

LITERATURE
1997, Keith Haring: Editions on Paper 1982-1990, Klaus Littmann, Cants Publishing Co., Ostfildern, Germany, p.168
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Asia

Note: This work is stamped with a seal of the Keith Haring Estate, inscribed with work details and signed by Julia Gruen, the executive director of The Keith Haring Foundation
This work is published by the World Federation of United Nations Associations

This work is accompanied by a documentation certificate issued by World Federation of United Nattions Associations

My painting is not to copy, but to create living lives. Art should be something that liberates your soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further.
——Keith Haring

Depicting the World Vision in the Name of Pop
The creations by Keith Haring

American pop artist Keith Haring was born in 1958 in Pittsburg. He studied at the School of Visual Arts, New York, but decided to leave the school and work on street art because the school's traditional doctrine clashed with his own. He debuted his graffiti works at famous landmarks such as Manhattan subway station and Time Square. In his short life of 31 years, he had published more than 50 exhibitions and his works has been collected by the Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art and Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, etc.

Haring regarded Andy Warhol as his close friend and spiritual mentor, both of whom explored contemporary social issues in the United States with vivid color and sharp lines. Since 1984, Haring has gone beyond the art gallery system to open Pop shops in New York and Tokyo to sell his creations. In 1988, after discovering that he had AIDS, he became more dedicated to his creations and set up a foundation to help AIDS patients and vulnerable children. Pop Shop III (Lot 8), is a wonderful work that was exhibited in Pop shop, while Fight Aids Worldwide (Lot 7) was completed in 1990, the same year that Haring has passed away. He utilized his humorous style to remind everyone the significance of care and attention to AIDS.

Bold and fearless

In Pop Shop III, a red giant is bending over and pulling the other person out of a big grey machine. Haring sends a humorous yet poignant message of criticism of the stagnant society. He does so through the use and arrangement of warmth and cold, bright and dark color blocks, concise black lines. Fight Aids Worldwide, created in the final stage of his life, shows a body subject bending and arched over, hands and feet on the ground, supporting numerous intertwined and leaping human beings. We all stand on the back of our predecessors to move forward into the future. With the current pandemic, Haring's message is just as relevant today.

Price estimate:
HKD: 30,000 – 50,000
USD: 3,900 – 6,500

Auction Result:
HKD: 35,400