The Blueprint Drawings 17
The Blueprint Drawings 17
Signed Print
Keith Haring
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98 x 108cm, Edition of 33, Screenprint
Medium: Screenprint
Edition size: 33
Year: 1990
Size: H 98cm x W 108cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
Last Auction: December 2019
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Meaning & Analysis
This signed screen print from 1990 is a limited edition of 33 from Keith Haring’s The Blueprint Drawings series. Depicted in his trademark linear style, Haring uses black ink against a white backdrop and simplified form. The Blueprint Drawings 17 shows a dotted landscape with a crawling figure and dog in the foreground, and an ancient Egyptian pyramid on the horizon.
As the final cohesive series of works that Haring completed, revisiting drawings from earlier in his career, these prints show some of his most famous and recurring pictograms. The pyramid for Haring became a symbol of antiquity or ancient past, himself noting that ‘The pyramid is connected with an unknown force… maybe people once thought they could store their own energy in that kind of building.’ The Blueprint Drawings 17 embodies a sense of otherworldly energy whereby the figures in the foreground are left desolate on a kinetic landscape of dots and dashes.
The crawling figure is reminiscent of Haring’s Radiant Baby icon that represented hope and optimism for the future, however this figure is much more adult-like than his original icon and the dog symbol can be seen looming behind the figure. The Blueprint Drawings 17 is a stark, otherworldly image that provokes the viewer to consider the symbolism of these unusual figures.
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
