By Regina de Con Cossío
B. Reading, Pennsylvania, 1950
Most expensive Artwork Sold: Untitled , 1982
Sold price: 6,537,500
As I am contemplating a painting by Keith Haring hanging on my wall, I remember what the artist once said: “Art should be something that liberates your soul, provokes the imagination, and encourages people to go further.” The street artist who reached out to the world with his simple characters and illustrations, spread a strong and vital social message through his artwork. Looking at his work is like diving into a unique world. To illustrate that, let’s consider the pieces I have in front, on my wall. “The Game” and “Pop Art” are two works on paper and painted with pen markers. Both signed in 1985, they depict scenes full of Haring’s recognizable motifs like the little dancing figures, angels, barking dogs, radiant babies crawling, and angels. The naive impression one gets at first sight with his cartoons and illustrations vanishes easily when facing the vacuum, emptiness and social claims represented in his paintings.
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