Keith Haring (American, 1958–1990)
Untitled, 1981
Marker on fiberglass
7 × 21 inches (17.8 × 53.3 cm)
Signed and dated “K. Haring DEC. 81” on the reverse.
Accompanied by an authentication letter from the Estate of Keith Haring, dated November 14, 2006, Identification No. 111406A1.
Provenance:
Galerie Laurent Strouk, Paris
Private Collection, Italy
Literature:
John Gruen, Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography, period photograph of Haring’s Broome Street apartment, New York, January 1982, apparently illustrating the present work in situ.
Price: Upon Request
An Exceptional Early Haring
Executed in December 1981, this remarkable Untitled belongs to one of the most consequential periods in Keith Haring’s career—the moment when the young artist was developing the distinctive visual vocabulary that would soon make him one of the defining figures of the New York art scene.
Across its unusually elongated fiberglass support, Haring depicts two crawling figures moving away from a radiating cross-like symbol. Rendered with the economy and confidence of a pictogram, the composition already contains the essential elements of the language for which Haring would become internationally recognized: the bold black contour, simplified human body, repetition, movement and radiating marks denoting energy.
The two figures appear almost sequentially, like consecutive frames of an animation. Haring’s line carries the eye rapidly from left to right before culminating in the radiating symbol. Despite measuring only 7 × 21 inches, the work possesses tremendous visual immediacy.
Its narrow, object-like format and fiberglass support also reflect Haring’s willingness during this formative period to work beyond conventional canvas and paper, transforming the materials and objects around him into surfaces for his rapidly evolving symbolic language.
New York, December 1981
The date is particularly significant.
By 1981, Haring had immersed himself in the extraordinary creative environment of downtown Manhattan. He was experimenting with a vocabulary of figures, symbols and signs that could communicate almost instantaneously, while increasingly taking his art outside traditional gallery settings.
During this period, Haring began creating his celebrated drawings on the unused black advertising panels of the New York subway system. These spontaneous public works introduced countless New Yorkers to the crawling figures, radiant babies, barking dogs and other symbols that would soon become inseparable from his name.
Untitled was created directly within this formative moment—December 1981, years before Haring’s imagery became a worldwide cultural phenomenon.
The reverse retains the artist’s unusually prominent inscription:
“K. Haring DEC. 81”
providing a particularly evocative connection to the precise moment of its creation.
From Haring’s Broome Street World
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the work is its apparent early photographic documentation.
John Gruen’s acclaimed Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography reproduces a photograph captioned:
“The Broome Street apartment of Keith, Juan Dubose, and Samantha McEwen. New York. January 1982.”
Within the photograph, a narrow horizontal work closely corresponding to the present Untitled can be seen resting against the wall at lower left.
The photograph was taken in January 1982—only weeks after the work’s December 1981 date.
Subject to definitive confirmation of the illustrated object’s identity, this provides an unusually intimate glimpse of the artwork within Haring’s immediate environment at precisely the period in which his mature artistic language was emerging.
Rather than simply documenting an early Haring, the photograph potentially places the object within the artist’s own Broome Street apartment and personal world at the dawn of his career.
Estate Authentication
The work is accompanied by important historical authentication documentation issued by the Estate of Keith Haring on November 14, 2006.
The Estate’s letter, Identification No. 111406A1, specifically records:
Keith Haring
Untitled
Marker on Fiberglass
1981
7 × 21 inches
Following examination of the work and the circumstances then known to it, the Estate expressed its opinion that the artwork was a work by Keith Haring.
The authentication letter includes a photograph of the work and bears the Estate’s embossed gold seal.
A Remarkable Artifact from Haring’s Formative Period
There is an immediacy to Haring’s earliest works that became increasingly difficult to replicate once his imagery achieved international recognition.
Here, virtually everything has been stripped away except line, figure, symbol and movement.
Two crawling bodies. One radiating sign. A narrow fiberglass surface. And Haring’s unmistakable hand.
Combined with its December 1981 date, Estate authentication, European provenance and apparent photographic documentation within Haring’s Broome Street apartment in January 1982, Untitled presents a compelling opportunity to acquire an intimate artifact from the period in which one of the most recognizable visual languages of the late twentieth century was being born.
Price Upon Request
