Keith Haring (1958-1990)

"Haring is one of the few artists since the Pop art era who has been able to succesffully integrate America's great commercial art form—cartooning—into fine art. That does not mean just putting up haywire images of Mickey Mouse, but means adopting the techniqutes of celluloid animators to communicate with startling effectiveness."
— (J. Deitch et al., Keith Haring, New York, 2008, p. 220)

Keith Haring’s Untitled (1987-1988), a dynamic, playful example of his steel sculpture, finds the artist exploring the human body and its schematic possibilities. While Haring’s famously planar, two-dimensional work offers little in the way of visual depth, sculpture allowed the artist to explore the contours of his visual style within an expanded field.
Incorporating elements of dance and combat, Untitled highlights Haring’s knack for contextual ambiguity and subtle provocativeness. Two figures stand on a black base—the yellow figure puts his head down and drives it through an opening in the white figure’s midsection. Arms outstretched, the yellow figure bursts forth, his neck and head emerging on the other side. As if in shock, the white figure raises his arms and tilts his head downward to watch his spearing; his body appears to accept this action, as if it is part of some poetically choreographed dance.