Keith Haring - Untitled (Tree of Life) - Offset...

Keith Haring Offset Lithography (*) Reproduction of the work “Tree of Life,” acrylic on canvas created by Haring in 1985. Luxurious edition on matte high‑weight conservation digital paper (250 g/m²) Authorized print by Artestar New York. Copyright: Keith Haring Foundation. Includes Certificate of Authenticity (COA). - Sheet dimensions: 52 x 62 cm - Motif dimensions: 40 x 50 cm - Condition: Excellent (this work has never been framed or exhibited, always stored in a professional art folder, therefore offered in pristine condition). - Provenance: Private collection. The work will be carefully handled and packed in reinforced cardboard packaging. Shipping will be trackable (UPS DPD DHL FedEx). The shipment will also include transport insurance for the final value of the work with full reimbursement in case of loss or damage, at no cost to the buyer. (*) Keith Haring was born in 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States. He grew up in Kutztown and from an early age showed a great interest in art. He studied graphic design at The Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh, and at 19, already openly gay, he moved to New York, where he found inspiration in graffiti art and enrolled at the School of Visual Arts where he received the influence of Keith Sonnler and Joseph Kossuth, who encouraged him to train as a conceptual artist after experimenting with form and color. Haring drew public attention in 1980 when he began doodling cartoon-like images with marker in the subways of the Big Apple, and then painted with white chalks cartoons on the black panels used for advertising, which earned him more than one arrest. His clean lines, bright colors, and active figures carried strong messages of life and unity, and his exhibitions were filmed by photographer Tseng Kwong Chi. Also around this time, he organized an exhibition at Club 57, and participated in a show in Times Square, where he drew animals and human faces for the first time. His first solo exhibition was at Tony Shafrazi Gallery in 1981, the same year he took part in the Documenta 7 exhibition in Kassel, Germany. In 1982 he befriended emerging artists of the era such as Kenny Scharf, Madonna, and Jean‑Michel Basquiat, and even met the famous Andy Warhol. In 1984 Haring went to Australia and painted several murals in Melbourne and Sydney, and even received money for his work from the National Gallery of Victoria and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. He also visited and painted in Rio de Janeiro, Paris’s Museum of Modern Art, Minneapolis, and Manhattan. During this period he even designed a pink jacket that Madonna wore to perform her song “Like a Virgin” on the show “Solid Gold.” In 1985, the Museum of Modern Art in Bordeaux organized an exhibition of his work, and he also took part in the Paris Biennale. He appeared in November of that year on MTV, where he painted on a program hosted by his friend Nick Rhodes of the group Duran Duran. In 1986 he painted murals in Amsterdam, Paris, Phoenix, and Berlin, also painted Grace Jones’s body for her music video for the song “I’m Not Perfect,” and opened a shop to sell his works in SOHO. By then, his works began to reflect the socio-political issues of the time such as anti-Apartheid, AIDS, and drugs. He also created pop art pieces for brands like Absolut Vodka, Lucky Strike, and Coca‑Cola, and even designed the cover of the charitable album “A Very Special Christmas,” on which his friend Madonna was included. In 1988 he was included on a select list of artists whose works appeared on Chateau Mouton Rothschild wine labels, and in the same year he was diagnosed with AIDS, so in the following year he inaugurated the Keith Haring Foundation, whose aim was to combat social problems related to this disease and to publicize the artist’s work through exhibitions, publications, and licenses of his work. In June 1989 he painted his last public work on a wall of the Church of San Antonio in Pisa. This work was titled “Tuttomondo.” Keith Haring died on February 16, 1990, at the early age of 32, from AIDS. (**) Of epic scale and ambition, Tree of Life (1985) was created at the height of the tragically short but intensely dynamic life and career of Keith Haring. Standing at more than three and a half meters tall, Tree of Life assumes almost biblical proportions in its representation of this fantastical scene. A fusion of punk and pop, Haring injects contemporary energy into this decidedly urban celebration that fuses established religious themes with historical references to traditional art with his distinctive culture of modern street art. Emanating from the twisting branches, a plethora of life explodes in the form of dancing bodies, like an explosion of knowledge. Under the tree, four yellow-spotted fully formed figures stand upright in exaltation. With economical line work, the green branches, bright as daylight, seem to vibrate against the fuchsia in a carnival of rhythmic patterns. “Look, when I paint, it is an experience that at its best transcends reality,” Haring said, explaining that this dimension was also reflected in his mental state while working. “When it works, you are transported to another place, you connect with things that are totally universal, of total consciousness, completely beyond your ego and your own being. That’s what it’s about” (K. Haring, quoted in D. Sheff, “Keith Haring: An Intimate Conversation,” in Rolling Stone, August 1989, reproduced at www.haring.com [accessed May 25, 2014]). “The Tree of Life” has been exhibited at the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen, the Museum für Neue Kunst in Karlsruhe, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Milan Triennial in Milan, and the Dexia Banque Internationale de Luxembourg.

Estimate:$168.03

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