Ludo 3
Ludo 3
Signed Print
Keith Haring
POA
This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
Lithograph, 1985
Signed Print Edition of 90
H 49cm x W 66cm
Critical Review
This signed screen print from 1985 is a limited edition of 90 from Keith Haring’s Ludo series. Depicted in the artist’s recognisable linear style, Ludo 3 shows a central figure rendered in thick, bold outlines, set against a backdrop of red squiggle and cross designs. The figure’s arms are twisting and flailing, with Haring’s characteristic energy lines to emphasise the sense of movement.
Haring utilises many of his idiosyncratic symbols in Ludo 3, notably showing a cross on the figure’s chest and portraying its head with a hole through the centre. Throughout his oeuvre, Haring has used these motifs in the context of figurative works such as his Pop Shop Quad series (1987) or Growing series (1988). Marked and porous figures are used to symbolise homosexuality, death and the emptiness felt by many during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
Ludo 3 is a jarring composition due to the way that Haring has layered the figure against a frenzy of red lines. Reminiscent of Aztec or Aboriginal art through his use of flowing, organic shapes and thick bold lines, Haring creates a complex pattern that plays out across the image surface. Explaining why many of his works resemble Aztec or Aboriginal art, Haring has said “My drawings don’t try to imitate life; they try to create life, to invent life,” something that he believed aligned with so-called primitive ideas.
