Pyramid (gold I)
Pyramid (gold I)
Signed Print
Keith Haring
£30,000-£45,000Value Indicator
$60,000-$90,000 Value Indicator
$60,000-$80,000 Value Indicator
¥290,000-¥430,000 Value Indicator
€35,000-€50,000 Value Indicator
$320,000-$470,000 Value Indicator
¥5,870,000-¥8,800,000 Value Indicator
$40,000-$60,000 Value Indicator
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103 x 145cm, Edition of 30, Screenprint
Medium: Screenprint
Edition size: 30
Year: 1989
Size: H 103cm x W 145cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
Last Auction: June 2023
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Meaning & Analysis
This signed screen print from 1989 is a limited edition of 30 from Keith Haring’s Pyramid series. Pyramid shows a multitude of mutilated, conjoined and distorted figures squirming across the pyramid-shaped print. Perfectly aligned in the shape of a pyramid, half-human-half-animal figures are tightly squeezed together as though clambering on top of one another in a hellish scene of chaos.
The print has a compulsive quality that fills out across the canvas that contrasts to Haring’s typical use of simplified form. There is a flow to his use of line that works alongside the symmetrical composition whereby the eye follows the electric lines in harmony with the image. In Haring’s work, the pyramid is a common pictogram used to symbolise ancient civilisation and stability. In choosing to depict a scene of chaos and debauchery in the pyramid shape, Haring injects the work with a moralistic charge.
Haring’s influence from Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, comes to the forefront in this image. Hideously deformed beasts populate the scene and the human figures can be seen to be torturing one another. Bosch’s work is famous for its moralistic tone and Haring is citing this, in his distinct cynical approach, to present a dire warning on the perils of sexual joy.
Keith Haring was a luminary of the 1980s downtown New York scene. His distinctive visual language pioneered one-line Pop Art drawings and he has been famed for his colourful, playful imagery. Haring's iconic energetic motifs and figures were dedicated to influencing social change, and particularly challenging stigma around the AIDS epidemic. Haring also pushed for the accessibility of art by opening Pop Shops in New York and Japan, selling a range of ephemera starting from as little as 50 cents. Haring's legacy has been cemented in the art-activism scene and is a testament to power of art to inspire social change
