KEITH HARING, LUCKY STRIKE (BLUE), LUCKY STRIKE SERIES, SIGNED SCREEN PRINT, EDITION OF 50, 1987
Lucky Strike is a screen print from Keith Haring’s Lucky Strike series (1987), a set of advertising posters for top-selling brand Lucky Strike cigarettes. The Lucky Strike posters are reminiscent of Haring’s popular Montreux posters from 1983 and were commissioned by Lucky Strike Switzerland, arranged by the art consultant Pierre Keller. Haring created nine designs, of which five were selected for the print and three were produced as large edition posters with painted signatures.
Showing a bright orange figure, upside down and in the air, Haring creates an image full of energy and excitement. The packet of Lucky Strike cigarettes remains closed, sitting at the bottom of the image as the central figure dances on top.
This print is rendered in flattened, bright colours of orange, blue, green and red, contoured with thick, bold lines. Haring’s use of simplified form and saturated colours reflect the visual language of consumer culture and mass advertisements, thus elevating this aesthetic to the realm of visual culture. As evidenced by his famous Pop Shop, Haring often conflated high art with commercialism and so claimed to mirror the capitalist world that he lived in.
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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.
