KEITH HARING, APOCALYPSE 2, APOCALYPSE SERIES, SIGNED SCREEN PRINT, EDITION OF 90, 1988
Keith Haring’s print Apocalypse 2, taken from his Apocalypse series (1988), shows a perplexing scene of dystopian chaos. Solid, heavy lines are used by Haring to depict the densely populated scene. Thick strokes, splatters of primary colour and harsh gestural marks produce jolts of violence and dynamism. Haring’s phallocentric universe is shown in a state of war, emphasised by explosions, collisions, army vehicles and menacing humanoids falling from the sky.
Apocalypse 2 directly relates death and danger to sexuality and promiscuity. Phalluses in the image are conceptualised as instruments of war, shooting at humanoids and causing destruction. As an adolescent, Haring witnessed the traumatising events of the Vietnam War on television and undoubtedly this had a lasting effect on his artwork. The dismaying realities of the AIDS epidemic, and Haring’s subsequent diagnosis in 1988, are depicted in this post-apocalyptic scene as acts of total violence and devastation, likened to the wars that Haring witnessed on TV in his youth.
As with Apocalypse 1, Haring uses collage to reproduce and duplicate da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Haring undermines the cerebral nature of fine art through defacement and duplication. In this print the Mona Lisa has been cut up and vandalised by black felt lines. As such, her beauty is wholly perverted. Just as his good friend Jean-Michel Basquiat had done before him, Haring used his unique graffiti style to erode boundaries between the public and the world of high art.
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ABOUT KEITH HARING
Known for his bold graphic style and playful sense of humour, Keith Haring is one of the most influential and adored artists of the 20th century.
Born in Pennsylvania, in 1958, Haring was a talented draughtsman as a child and developed his cartoonish style at the hands of his father and the work of Walt Disney and Dr Seuss. However it would take some time before he realised he could marry this kind of drawing with being a fine artist. Upon graduating from high school he enrolled in a commercial art school before realising he had little interest in pursuing a career as an illustrator or graphic designer. After dropping out of college he joined the hippie movement and hitchhiked across the country where he made anti-Nixon t-shirts to pay for food and Grateful Dead tickets. Learn more about Keith Haring.
