All images © Keith Haring Foundation
Untitled
1988
acrylic on canvas
Private collection
Displayed on a black wall, this enormous 12’ high x 18’ wide painting is rectangular and is mounted directly on the wall with screws and grommets. It is painted entirely in black paint leaving gaps on the canvas to create the white lines depicting the work. Here Haring’s signature outlines make up the work, they depict a horned serpentine creature as it emerges from a large egg which is strapped to the back of a person facing the bottom of a flight of stairs. The painting has a double line border which frames it.
This work will be described in thirds, from left to right. At the bottom on the left is a staircase 7 steps high. It is loosely filled in with rectangles giving the appearance of stone or bricks. A human figure with a long or erect penis feels for footing with their right toe as they step up a stair. Three thick bands around their waist strap an egg shell to their back. Their arms are in the air beside their head shielding them from the falling pieces of the egg shell which tumble down as the creature emerges. One piece which has fallen to their elbow resembles a three pointed crown. In the upper left corner at the top of the stairs floats a sperm shape. It has devil horns that curve towards each other at the sides of its bulbous head. It is a smaller version of the creature emerging from the egg.
The centre of the painting is taken up by the enormous egg shell which is taller than, and four times as wide as the human figure it is belted to. Its top half is riddled with cracks and lines on all sides indicate it is moving rapidly. From a hole at the top erupts the body of the devil horned sperm. The right third of the painting is dominated by the escape from the egg of the sperm’s thick squirmy body, large head and long curving horns that point down. Five long vertical snakelike squiggles are under the sperm’s head, between and beside its horns.
On the right of the work is a quote by Haring “I don’t know if I have 5 months or 5 years, but I know my days are numbered. This is why my activities and projects are so important now. To do as much as quickly as possible. I’m sure that what will live on after I die is important enough to make sacrifices of my personal luxury and leisure time now. Work is all I have and art is more important than life.”
Exhibition label text:
This untitled work shows a human figure struggling to walk up a staircase while carrying a massive egg tied to its back. The egg is cracked and a sperm with devil horns bursts from its shell. The painting speaks profoundly to the AIDS epidemic that took the lives of so many within Haring’s community, including his own. Using monumental scale, a palette drained of colour, and graphic imagery, Haring represented the impossible weight of the AIDS crisis.