KEITH HARING, THE BLUEPRINT DRAWINGS 5, THE BLUEPRINT DRAWINGS SERIES, SIGNED SCREEN PRINT, EDITION OF 33, 1990
Said to be one of the last cohesive projects of the artist’s career, The Blueprint Drawings 5 is a print from Keith Haring’s The Blueprint Drawings series from 1990. Using much of the same imagery from The Blueprint Drawings 4, this print features a collection of frames rendered in Haring’s trademark figurative style, showing snapshots of violence, drug use, sex, sin and death.
As with other prints in the series, Haring uses dots on the landscape of each frame to denote the otherness of homosexuality and illness, specifically AIDS and each image seems to convey the causes and effects of the disease. The Blueprint Drawings 5 is exemplary of how Haring uses a simplified visual language and syntax of symbols to communicate hard-hitting and explicit messages around HIV/AIDS, sexuality and death.
Produced as unique works on paper with Sumi ink, Haring originally displayed these works in a one-week exhibition in Manhattan in 1980 where not a single drawing was sold. However, he did find success in the sale of several blueprint copies of the original drawings and so revisited the subject in 1990, a month before his tragic death creating a portfolio of 17 screen prints of the original images.
Read more about The Blueprint Drawings 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.
