KEITH HARING, ASCENDING, SIGNED SCREEN PRINT, EDITION OF 100, 1989
Ascending is a screen print by Keith Haring from 1989 that features an image depicted in the artist’s trademark figurative style. The print shows a figure ascending from legs that are oversized, that in turn has two layers inside of it, much like a toy Matryoshka doll.
The figure seen in Haring’s Ascending print is genderless and has its arms bent downwards as though breakdancing. Graphic lines radiate from the figure to give the effect that it is pulsating and dancing with joy. Haring ensures this print bursts with energy by using saturated, block colours and bold lines. The figure is shown to be bright yellow, set against a pale blue backdrop and purple ground. This celebratory image bursts with energy and vigour, a sensibility that makes Haring’s work so appealing and unique.
Much like fellow graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, Haring reuses particular symbols, such as the dancing figure, throughout his artistic oeuvre to produce a memorable pictorial language. The simplistic form and positive visual language of Ascending recalls the artist’s early subway drawings, where he spent his days drawing in white chalk on the empty advertising panels of the New York subway system.
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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.
