KEITH HARING, PYRAMID (YELLOW), PYRAMID SERIES, SIGNED SCREEN PRINT ON ANODIZED ALUMINUM, EDITION OF 30, 1989
Pyramid is a screen print from Keith Haring’s Pyramid series (1989) that shows a multitude of mutilated, conjoined and distorted figures squirming across the pyramid-shaped print. Perfectly aligned in the shape of a pyramid, half-human-half-animal figures are tightly squeezed together as though clambering on top of one another in a hellish scene of chaos.
The print has a compulsive quality that fills out across the canvas that contrasts to Haring’s typical use of simplified form. There is a flow to his use of line that works alongside the symmetrical composition whereby the eye follows the electric lines in harmony with the image. In Haring’s work, the pyramid is a common pictogram used to symbolise ancient civilisation and stability. In choosing to depict a scene of chaos and debauchery in the pyramid shape, Haring injects the work with a moralistic charge.
Haring’s influence from Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, comes to the forefront in this image. Hideously deformed beasts populate the scene and the human figures can be seen to be torturing one another. Bosch’s work is famous for its moralistic tone and Haring is citing this, in his distinct cynical approach, to present a dire warning on the perils of sexual joy.
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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.
