The Story Of Red And Blue 4
The Story Of Red And Blue 4
Signed Print
Keith Haring
Lithograph, 1989
Signed Print Edition of 90
H 56cm x W 42cm
Critical Review
Taking the format of a children’s story book, The Story Of Red And Blue 4 is a print from Keith Haring’s The Story Of Red And Blue series from 1989. This signed colour lithograph is a limited edition of 90.
Representative of Haring’s desire to create a visual language that appealed to both children and adults alike, the series is formed of a variety of simplified images reminiscent of children’s fictional characters. Throughout the series Haring limits his colour palette to bright red and blue and renders each image in his distinctive linear style with black rounded lines.
The Story Of Red And Blue 4 shows a cartoon-like image of a baby holding a comically oversized rattle that is rendered with bright blue brushstrokes and black line over the top. This is a playful and appealing image that is reminiscent of traditional children’s story book illustrations, however throughout the series there seems not to be any cohesive storyline
Across the first half of the series, each print alternates in colour between red and blue and by the end of the series the two colours appear together in the prints. In each print Haring uses simplified and generic pictograms to produce the effect of a children’s story book without a sensical storyline, where instead the story seems to focus abstractly on the colours red and blue.
