Bad Boys 2
Bad Boys 2
Signed Print
Keith Haring
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51 x 66cm, Edition of 30, Screenprint
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Meaning & Analysis
This signed screen print from 1986 is a limited edition of 30 from Keith Haring’s Bad Boys series. Bad Boys 2 shows an explicit, sexually charged image of a man’s body where the figure’s phallus forms the central focus of the image, making clear Haring’s celebration of male homosexuality in this print.
Bad Boys 2 is a densely filled image of frenzied black lines, depicting the figure with free flowing lines that fill the interior of his torso. The technique is reminiscent of many of Haring’s works such as his Stones series (1989), that creates an abstract and complex visual language through a simplicity of line. Harking back to his subway drawings of the 1980s, this print is depicted exclusively in black and white, further emphasising Haring’s keen interest in maintaining an immediacy in his work even in this later stage of his artistic career.
The sexually explicit subject matter of Haring’s Bad Boys series is indicative of a turning point in the artist’s career, when the HIV/AIDS epidemic hit the LGBT+ community in 1980s New York. Haring himself was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 and subsequently the subject dominated his work in the latter part of his career, before his tragic death in 1990.