Apocalypse

In the Apocalypse series, religious iconography and apocalyptic imagery are central to how Haring portrays the manifold catastrophes that converged around him. Based upon his experience of evangelicalism as an adolescent and the way in which news-media had related the AIDS crisis to apocalyptic thinking, Haring became preoccupied with this idea of the end of the world in his works. Playing on views held by the 1970s Jesus Movement around Revelation, which references apocalyptic events and fire destroying the earth, Haring reworks Christian iconography throughout the series to reflect the chaotic and troublesome events of 1980s New York. “Still, all that stuff stuck in my head and even now there are lots of religious images in my work, although they’re used in a more cynical way – to show how manipulative those beliefs and images can be.” – Keith Haring.

The ‘devil sperm’ motif that is repeated throughout the series forms part of Haring’s pictorial language warning of the perils of sexual joy. Haring also uses the motif of the mushroom cloud, often ambiguous in its phallic shape, directly relating the devastating effects of the AIDS crisis to the concept of nuclear holocaust.

Completed during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and in the year of Haring’s own diagnosis with the virus, the Apocalypse series powerfully expresses the pain and anguish felt at the time by people living with AIDS. It is one of Haring’s few works that explicitly centres around the dangers of extreme promiscuity in such an immediate and instinctive style with the series focusing on the direct correlation between physical love and death. Haring used his standing within the art world to go public with his diagnosis, helping to destigmatise the AIDS virus that was inaccurately coined as the ‘gay plague’.

Known for his crowded, visually eclectic compositions, Keith Haring’s figures can be hard to unpack at first glance. Nevertheless, some of his motifs recur consistently across his work, and do bear significant meaning. For example, Haring’s famous ‘Barking Dog’ tag is often read to indicate suspicion or action, while the ‘radiant baby’ is seen to represent the artist himself. Less ambiguously, the TV symbolises the mass media, the cross - the organised church, and the heart stick demonstrating love and individuality.

Of course, Haring uses plenty more symbols in his work, many of which bear significant ideological weight. To learn more about these and Haring’s global impact, see our article here.

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