KEITH HARING, APOCALYPSE 3, APOCALYPSE SERIES, SIGNED SCREEN PRINT, EDITION OF 90, 1988
Apocalypse 3 is a screen print from Keith Haring’s dynamic Apocalypse series (1988) that provides the viewer with a hellish visual narrative of the AIDS epidemic and the end of the world. This print shows a phallocentric universe depicted in bold lines, splatters of primary colour and harsh gestural marks to convey a sense of violence and chaos.
A giant phallus hangs over the scene of deformed figures, ‘devil sperm’, planes, army vehicles and a set of stairs that anchor the composition. The central image is a collaged 1950s-era magazine clipping showing a mother feeding her child, used by Haring to create a dialogue between dissimilar worlds and shock the viewer. Haring uses his linear style to draw on top of the image and contextualise the mother and child within the chaotic scene, notably adding mitre-like headdresses on the figures that renders the figures sacred. The image also shows the tail of the ‘devil sperm’ infecting the child’s milk bottle, alluding to the transmission of HIV from mother to child during the epidemic.
Producing a social commentary on the stigmas surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Haring’s line drawings directly relate death and danger to sexuality and promiscuity. By placing the clipping of mother and child within the print, Haring creates a jarring image that dissolves boundaries between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, and injects a moment of purity into the violent scene.
Read more about Apocalypse by Keith Haring.
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.
