Apocalypse 4
Apocalypse 4
Signed Print
Keith Haring
£7,000-£10,500Value Indicator
$14,500-$22,000 Value Indicator
$13,000-$20,000 Value Indicator
¥70,000-¥100,000 Value Indicator
€8,000-€12,500 Value Indicator
$70,000-$110,000 Value Indicator
¥1,380,000-¥2,070,000 Value Indicator
$9,500-$14,500 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
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Medium: Screenprint
Edition size: 90
Year: 1988
Size: H 97cm x W 97cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | Karl & Faber | Germany | |||
| September 2023 | Sotheby's London | United Kingdom | |||
| May 2023 | Uppsala Auktionskammare | Sweden | |||
| March 2023 | Sotheby's Online | United Kingdom | |||
| July 2021 | Dorotheum, Vienna | Austria | |||
| August 2020 | Forum Auctions London | United Kingdom | |||
| November 2018 | Bonhams New York | United States |
Meaning & Analysis
This signed screen print in colours from 1988 is a limited edition of 90 from Keith Haring’s Apocalypse series. Apocalypse 4 shows a bright red monstrous figure with the head of Saint Fabiola. Haring populates the scene with demonic creatures and troubling satanic symbols.
Apocalypse 4 is one of the more unusual prints from Haring’s Apocalypse series featuring a troublesome half-human, half-monster as its central subject. Haring uses collage to embed a 19th century portrait of Saint Fabiola into the print and form the head of this grotesque creature. Fabiola was a nurse and Roman matron who renounced all earthly pleasures to devote her immense wealth to helping the poor and sick. Apocalypse 4 is exemplary of the way Haring appropriates historical imagery and high culture to provoke dialogue on crucial social issues of his lifetime, in this case the 1980s AIDS crisis.
Fabiola is depicted by Haring as a maternal figure with multiple breasts, nursing a misshapen and unsightly baby. It is uncertain as to whether the central figure is attempting to help the sick, those suffering from AIDS related illnesses, or whether she is perpetuating the surrounding chaos. The ‘devil sperm’ motif appears, swimming out of Fabiola’s mouth, thus alluding that she too has been reduced by the disease.
Two of Haring’s most cited works of influence, Dante’s Inferno and Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, come to the forefront in this image. A ravaged cityscape looms over the top of the print and falls down a funnel rendered in thick, dark ink. Hideously deformed beasts populate the scene and a group of human figures in Fabiola’s monstrous hand are being tortured. Dante and Bosch’s works are famous for their moralistic tone and Haring is citing these works, 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
