Fertility 2
Fertility 2
Signed Print
Keith Haring
£45,000-£70,000Value Indicator
$90,000-$150,000 Value Indicator
$80,000-$130,000 Value Indicator
¥430,000-¥680,000 Value Indicator
€50,000-€80,000 Value Indicator
$470,000-$740,000 Value Indicator
¥8,800,000-¥13,690,000 Value Indicator
$60,000-$90,000 Value Indicator
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107 x 126cm, Edition of 100, Screenprint
Medium: Screenprint
Edition size: 100
Year: 1983
Size: H 107cm x W 126cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
Last Auction: November 2024
Value Trend:
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
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Meaning & Analysis
This signed screen print from 1983 is a limited edition of 100 from Keith Haring’s Fertility Suite series. As the second work in the suite, Fertility 2 features a neon, extraterrestrial landscape that conveys themes surrounding life, death and illness. Using bright neon colours of pink, red, green, orange and yellow to form a landscape against a black backdrop, Fertility 2 has a futuristic character that is charged with tension.
The print’s central subject is a brightly coloured and spotted ancient Egyptian pyramid, a common motif in Haring’s work that symbolised both antiquity and eternity. Haring’s allusion to the mysteries of ancient civilisation are juxtaposed with the imagination of extraterrestrial civilisation through the depiction of UFOs that have come to represent positive energy and empowerment to those who are situated outside of accepted social norms.
Haring’s use of dashes, dots and large spots are used to allude to the lesions of people who live with HIV/AIDS. This landscape is seemingly overwhelmed by the disease and threatens the pregnant figure in the bottom left hand corner, whilst the unaffected UFOs attack the sacred monument in the centre. Haring was a prominent HIV/AIDS activist and Fertility 2 represents the saving of children and humanity from the horrors of illness and inactive leadership.
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
