Name: Bad Boys 2
Brand: Keith Haring
Rating: 5 (231 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Keith Haring’s Bad Boys 2 (signed), a screenprint from 1986, is estimated to be worth between £2,650 and £3,950. This work has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 52%. There have been three sales at auction since its entry to the market in May 2020. Over the past five years, the hammer price has ranged from £3,117 in May 2020 to £3,404 in June 2022. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 30.

Auction Date

Auction House

Location

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

June 2022

Wright

United States

April 2022

Wright

United States

May 2020

Bonhams Los Angeles

United States

Meaning & Analysis

This signed screen print from 1986 is a limited edition of 30 from Keith Haring’s Bad Boys series. Bad Boys 2 shows an explicit, sexually charged image of a man’s body where the figure’s phallus forms the central focus of the image, making clear Haring’s celebration of male homosexuality in this print.

Bad Boys 2 is a densely filled image of frenzied black lines, depicting the figure with free flowing lines that fill the interior of his torso. The technique is reminiscent of many of Haring’s works such as his Stones series (1989), that creates an abstract and complex visual language through a simplicity of line. Harking back to his subway drawings of the 1980s, this print is depicted exclusively in black and white, further emphasising Haring’s keen interest in maintaining an immediacy in his work even in this later stage of his artistic career.

The sexually explicit subject matter of Haring’s Bad Boys series is indicative of a turning point in the artist’s career, when the HIV/AIDS epidemic hit the LGBT+ community in 1980s New York. Haring himself was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 and subsequently the subject dominated his work in the latter part of his career, before his tragic death in 1990.