KEITH HARING, APOCALYPSE 7, APOCALYPSE SERIES, SIGNED SCREEN PRINT, EDITION OF 90, 1988
Keith Haring provides us with a glimpse of Hell in his print Apocalypse 7, from his Apocalypse series (1988). The scene shows an oversized, flesh coloured sperm with devil horns, hovering over the apocalyptic landscape. As the series progresses, the presence of the demonic sperm becomes more menacing and its threatening nature comes to the fore in this print.
In Apocalypse 7 a television monitor shows a volcano erupting, about to devastate the city below. Living through a time of technological acceleration, Haring saw the “machine aesthetic” as a threat to humanity and used the television as a powerful symbol for totalitarian-style manipulation. Haring uses the image of the television screen in this work to symbolise the uncontrollable nature of mass culture.
Using the religious imagery of the final judgement, Haring depicts a mass of piled-up human figures as they escape up the tongue of a crying demon with pig’s snout and horns. A deformed figure climbs a set of stairs just above, representing the entrance or vortex of a hell circle. Faced with the deaths of many of his friends due to AIDS, Apocalypse 7 is indicative of how Haring felt about life and humanity at the time. The Mona Lisa appears again, rendered almost anonymous with her face ripped off and placed on the satanic pig. Haring removes all identifying features from his subjects, serving as a powerful representation of how AIDS has indiscriminately affected many thousands of people, and how their suffering has been met with public indifference.
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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.