Why are Haring's Pyramids so important?

Artist-cum-social activist Keith Haring relentlessly used his art to appeal for justice and political change. With his simple outlined figures, Haring created his own modern hieroglyphics that could be understood beyond all gender, sexual, class, and language barriers. His Pyramids became the fitting backdrop for his moralistic works, and a vital motif in his campaign for AIDS visibility in the final years of his life.

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Pyramids by Keith Haring Background & Meaning

Pyramids

Keith Haring’s The Pyramids collection epitomises his modern-day hieroglyphics. The pièce de résistance of the series, Silence Equals Death, features a pink triangle—the badge homosexuals were forced to wear in Nazi concentration camps—inverted in an act of reclamation common among gay activists in the 1980s.

Meaning & Analysis

Throughout his career, Keith Haring developed his own visual language based on simple and accessible imagery. Especially towards the end of his life, prior to his death from AIDS in 1990, Haring turned to Pyramids to articulate his pursuit of a universally-readable iconography. Populated by his iconic outlined figures, the works in our Pyramids collection testify to Haring's development of his own modern hieroglyphics.

Haring's pyramids pay homage to ancient civilisations and their championing of a visual language that can still be understood millenniums later. Since his early 'Subway Drawings', Haring likewise committed himself to reducing messages to simple imagery. In doing so, Haring articulated his messages of love, hope, and a relentless striving for socio-political change that could be understood as widely as possible. His works Pyramid (blue) and Pyramid (gold) are, respectfully, a monumental testament to the virtues and vices of humanity. Pyramid (gold) is decorated with a dizzying array of Haring's archetypal figures, morphing into gruesome beasts, painfully giving birth, and torturing one another. The work has been interpreted as a grave warning of the perils of sexual joy, something particularly poignant in Haring's work after his diagnosis with AIDS. Pyramid (blue), on the other hand, is similar in composition but depicts his outlined figures in joyous harmony. The works are universally legible; their moralistic overtones speaking to Haring's use of his art to illicit social change even in this precarious year of his life.

Haring's Pyramids were not only about creating modern hieroglyphics, but a nod to the eternal legacy he hoped to leave behind after his untimely death. Perhaps the pièce de résistance of his Pyramids, Silence Equals Death is one of Haring's oeuvre-defining works, and one of the artist's final pleas for the AIDS epidemic to be addressed before his death. Adapted from a poster produced by ACT UP, an organisation that tirelessly campaigned for an end to AIDS, Silence Equals Death was fittingly produced to raise funds for the AIDS Outreach Fund. The pink triangle at the centre of the work is an inversion of the badge homosexual men were forced to wear in Nazi concentration camps, and is a symbol reclaimed by gay activist groups throughout the 1980s. While the Nazi's upside down triangle symbolised homosexual men as being the most lowly group in society, Haring upturned the symbol into one of his Pyramids to suggest the greatness of the LGBTQ community and their hopes to extinguish AIDS. As the title of the work suggests, this was not the time to 'See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil', and the pyramid emerged as an eye-catching appeal to the Reagan administration for AIDS visibility.

Haring's Pyramids are, therefore, an essential part of the his iconography as both artist and activist. As the backdrop for his modern hieroglyphics, Haring used these Pyramids to create a universal visual language that could be read by all, regardless of class, gender, race, and sexuality.

Artist-cum-social activist Keith Haring relentlessly used his art to appeal for justice and political change. With his simple outlined figures, Haring created his own modern hieroglyphics that could be understood beyond all gender, sexual, class, and language barriers. His Pyramids became the fitting backdrop for his moralistic works, and a vital motif in his campaign for AIDS visibility in the final years of his life.
If you're looking to sell art by Keith Haring, click the link and we can help. We employ a number of techniques and practices in order to give a realistic and achievable valuation of any art listed on myartbroker.com. We analyse the demand for work in question, take into consideration previous sales and auction valuations, we assess the current gallery valuation and monitor the current deals taking place via MyArtBroker every day. We regularly advise sellers on a price bracket for their artwork completely free of charge.