M onumental in its scale and vibrant black-yellow-red chromatic simplicity, Keith Haring's Untitled from 1983 is a viscerally-charged test.mes nt to the artist's unparalleled painterly virtuosity and melding of high and low culture. Like his compatriots Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, Keith Haring was driven by a deep-rooted personal desire to serve as a narrator of the modern age. With Basquiat, Haring shared the kitsch, gritty origins of a street artist trained in the language of graffiti and tagging; with Warhol, he shared an interest in appropriating socio-political icons ideals through reproduction and mass proliferation. Synergizing the tabulated code of graffiti, Haring positions himself as the artist-provocateur--responsible for speaking out against inequity, warning against oppression, and connecting with a public audience on issues such as AIDS, racism, mass-media, ecological preservation, or nuclear technology. Saturated in Haring's iconic, nearly automatic mark-making, Untitled endures as a record of Haring at his most accomplished and in command.

Untitled epitomizes Haring's inimitable aptitude for conveying pulsating movement through forms distilled to their most basic, essential components. Haring's confident hand draws bold, self-assured strokes, eschewing a pre-meditated schematic plan for spontaneous genius; never erasing or reworking, Haring's virtuosic gestural ingenuity flows directly through his brush onto his support. Unmistakably charged by the frenetic, exuberant linework throughout the composition, the present work communicates an infectious energy and joy. The most visible figure in the painting is in the work's epicenter, seen visibly dancing with his neck extended in an elegant surrealist arc. Caught in mid-movement the figure has transformed the environment around him, creating a world that reflects their personal artistic expression. Committed to the artist's role in making the world more equal and just, Haring fervently emphasized the ability for an individual to effect change in society. For Haring at the moment in which the work was executed, which saw the intersection of numerous activist movements, no idea was more essential to his practice.

The present work is exceptional for its dense and visually rich imagery, resplendent with sumptuous drips, linear acuity, and endless formal flourishes. Untitled is a culmination of Haring's practice, encompassing the various visual strategies he employed in less important drawings and paintings and coalescing them to create a singularly accomplished work; While Haring here deploys similar forms as earlier formative works, the expressive joie de vivre of the drips juxtaposed with the hard-edged lines of his archetypal bold shapes exemplify Haring's mastery over the painterly medium, bridging his Pop language with the critical gravitas of Abstract Expressionism. Just as we can visualize Pollock vigorously taking paint to canvas, revealing his heroic genius with every gestural flair, Untitled analogously conjures Haring's performance of painting—the ineluctable motion of the image parallels Haring's own instinctive, primal dance with brush and canvas. A tireless activist, art gave Haring a forum to advocate for the changes he sought in the world, and while his works were arenas for "fluctuation[s] between hope and hopelessness [he] did not allow his creative energy to flag" instead injustices inherent to contemporary society "spurred him on, as far as it was possible, to paint not only against the hell of others but also against his own decline." (Ralph Melcher, Exh. Cat., Freiburg and Rotterdam, Keith Haring: Heaven and Hell, 2001, p. 20). Energetic and poignantly underscoring Haring's understanding of the artist as an essential actor in society, the present work acts as a locus of beauty, ultimately showing a way forward.

Artist

Keith Haring