Silence Equals Death
Silence Equals Death
Signed Print
Keith Haring
£60,000-£90,000
$120,000-$180,000 Value Indicator
$110,000-$160,000 Value Indicator
¥550,000-¥830,000 Value Indicator
€70,000-€110,000 Value Indicator
$590,000-$880,000 Value Indicator
¥11,650,000-¥17,480,000 Value Indicator
$80,000-$110,000 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Medium: Screenprint
Edition size: 200
Year: 1989
Size: H 99cm x W 99cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Bonhams Los Angeles | United States | |||
| August 2023 | Swann Galleries | United States | |||
| June 2021 | Wright | United States | |||
| July 2020 | Leonard Joel, Melbourne | Australia | |||
| December 2019 | Koller Zurich | Switzerland | |||
| October 2018 | Christie's New York | United States | |||
| October 2018 | Sotheby's New York | United States |
Meaning & Analysis
Keith Haring's iconic print Silence Equals Death, completed in 1989 just a year after his tragic AIDS diagnosis, was originally produced as a fundraiser for the Outreach Fund for AIDS as an edition of 200. Recalling the empty advertising spaces on the subway where Haring produced chalk drawings early on in his career, this print shows a mass of interconnected, line-drawn figures in silver reflective ink over a florescent pink triangle.
Silence Equals Death is a direct reference to and adaptation of the AIDS activist group ACT UP’s poster of the same name, an image that became the defining image of AIDS activism in the 1980s. The central symbol of the pink triangle is an inversion of the badge worn in Nazi concentration camps to identify homosexual men. Appropriated by Gay activist groups throughout the 1980s, it is no wonder that Haring was drawn to this succinct and eye-catching symbol that holds so much moral weight.
The faceless and genderless figures that Haring depicts represent the piles of bodies observed at the liberation of concentration camps and may also allude to the thousands of tragic deaths to AIDS due to government negligence. Haring’s reworks the original ACT UP poster to reference the saying ‘See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil’, with the countless figures that are layered over the triangle shown covering their eyes, mouth and ears with both hands. This motif was used to make criticise the Reagan administration’s refusal to acknowledge and discuss the AIDS crisis.
