Keith Haring — Radiant Baby (from Icons), 1990
Screenprint in colors with embossing on Arches Cover paper
25 × 21 in. (63.5 × 53.3 cm)
Edition of 250, 25 Artist’s Proofs and 25 Hors Commerce impressions
Published by Tony Shafrazi Editions, New York
Printed by Studio Heinrici Ltd., New York
Accompanied by the original certificate of authenticity dated June 28, 1990
Excellent condition
Few images are as immediately synonymous with Keith Haring as the Radiant Baby. First appearing in Haring’s visual vocabulary during the early 1980s, the crawling infant surrounded by energetic rays became one of the artist’s most enduring symbols—a joyful embodiment of innocence, vitality, hope and the limitless potential of new life.
Haring believed deeply in the accessibility of art and possessed a particular affinity for children, whose openness, imagination and lack of pretense closely mirrored his own approach to drawing. In the Radiant Baby, the child does not simply occupy the composition; it quite literally radiates energy outward. Its simplicity allows the image to transcend language and culture, helping make it one of the defining icons of Haring’s career.
This example comes from Haring’s celebrated Icons portfolio of 1990, published by Tony Shafrazi Editions during the final year of the artist’s life. The portfolio brought together five of the symbols that had become fundamental to Haring’s visual language, transforming imagery first developed on the streets and in the New York subway system into highly refined graphic works.
