Bad Boys 3
Bad Boys 3
Signed Print
Keith Haring
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51 x 66cm, Edition of 30, Screenprint
Meaning & Analysis
This signed screen print from 1986 is a limited edition of 30 from Keith Haring’s Bad Boys series. Rendered with free flowing black lines against a white backdrop, Bad Boys 3 shows two figures taking part in sexually explicit activity and is representative of Haring’s celebration of his sexuality.
Bad Boys 3 is reminiscent of the bold lines of Pre-Columbian art – especially those of Nazca lines – and aboriginal art, pertaining to Haring’s debt to non-western artistic traditions. The use of free flowing lines that create a frenzy against the plain backdrop work to sustain a tension between complex pattern and immediateness of viewing. Much like many of Haring’s works from his oeuvre, his use of bold lines create a sense of energy and dynamism that is unique and eye-catching.
Completed four years prior to his tragic death by AIDS in 1990, Haring’s Bad Boys series is a pivotal work that uses sexual image to advocate for safe sex and AIDS awareness. Throughout his career, Haring used a simplistic and immediate visual language in his works to communicate and raise awareness of complex ideas surrounding the socio-political crises of 1980s New York. By using abstracted lines to fill the bodies of each figure, Haring maintains a sense of fun in this explicit image.