Keith Haring — Totem, 1989

Three-part woodcut on Inshu-Kozu Japanese paper
75½ × 35 in. (191.8 × 88.9 cm)
Artist’s Proof (A.P.), aside from the numbered edition of 60
Published by Edition Schellmann, Munich and New York
1989

Created in 1989, during the final period of Keith Haring’s extraordinary career, Totem is among the artist’s most monumental and visually commanding works on paper. Extending more than six feet in height, the composition transforms Haring’s instantly recognizable vocabulary of figures, symbols and rhythmic line into a towering, almost ceremonial presence.

Executed as a three-part woodcut on delicate Inshu-Kozu Japanese paper, the work demonstrates the remarkable sophistication Haring brought to printmaking during the late 1980s. Its vertically stacked imagery evokes the structure of a traditional totem while remaining unmistakably Haring: energetic, immediate and built from a visual language intended to transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries.

The extraordinary scale is particularly important. At 75½ inches tall, Totem occupies a space somewhere between print, drawing and sculpture; installed on a wall, it has a physical presence rarely encountered among Haring’s editioned works.

This example is an Artist’s Proof, outside the standard numbered edition of 60, and is reported to have been preserved in mint condition. Proof impressions of Haring’s major graphic works are particularly desirable to collectors, and Totem represents an exceptional opportunity to acquire one of the artist’s most ambitious late works.

Condition: Mint condition, as reported by the present owner.

Provenance: Private Collection, United States.