KEITH HARING, FLOWERS III, FLOWERS SERIES, SIGNED SCREEN PRINT, EDITION OF 100, 1990
Keith Haring’s print Flowers III, from the Flowers series (1990), is a lively scene of fluid, phallic shapes depicted in the artist’s distinct pop-graffiti style. Rendered in vibrant pastel colours and set against a saturated yellow background, this print has a visceral quality that is not always present in Haring’s work.
Following his AIDS diagnosis in 1988, Haring completed the Flowers series only months before his tragic death in 1990. Flowers III is executed with dense, rhythmic lines and the screen print ink has been allowed to drip down the image, forming thin streaks of colour that stand out against the solid black outlines. The drip lines and splatter marks were intentionally left by Haring as an expression of his bodily suffering, whilst also to acknowledge the legacy of figures like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning from the Abstract Expressionist movement.
The Flowers series represents plant forms and growth with bright, artificial colours. In Flowers III, Haring uses coloured dots and holes to denote the otherness of homosexuality and illness, specifically AIDS, at the time. The flower figures that Haring carefully chooses as his subject matter throughout the print series, are deliberately ambiguous in their phallic nature. Through the use of colour and pattern, Flowers III employs a joyful visual language and flower-like shapes to allude to the fragility of life and closeness to death for those living with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s
Read more about Flowers 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.
