Name: The Story Of Red And Blue 1
Brand: Keith Haring
Rating: 5 (236 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Keith Haring’s The Story Of Red And Blue 1 (signed) is estimated to be worth between £4,150 and £6,000. Over the past five years, the hammer price has ranged from £3,400 in June 2020 to £4,745 in October 2022. This lithograph print, created in 1989, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 4%. This work is somewhat rare, having been sold 8 times at auction since its initial sale in May 2013. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 90.

Meaning & Analysis

This signed colour lithograph from 1990 is a limited edition of 90 from Keith Haring’s The Story Of Red And Blue series. Presented in the form of a children’s story book, this series is representative of Haring’s desire to create a visual language appealing to both adults and children alike. Throughout the series he limits his colour palette to bright red and blue and rendered each image in his distinctive linear style with black rounded lines.

The Story Of Red And Blue 1 shows an image of an unusual, bright red, animal-like figure with a long neck and nose, with a typical Haring stick figure balancing on this character’s nose. This is a playful and lively image that sets the tone for the images that follow in the series.

Haring’s use of action lines that radiate from the balancing figure and from this other character’s hand that points upwards creates a sense of dynamism and movement to the image. As though to poke fun at the stick figure, the character with the long neck points upwards to as the figure appears to be on the brink of falling from the long nose. Haring’s use of energetic line encourages the viewer to find a sense of joy from this print.

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