.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Offered from the collection of the celebrated Dutch furniture designer Martin Visser, Untitled and Untitled (TV Dog) (both 1982) are iconic expressions of Keith Haring’s unmistakable linear style. Haring synthesised the aesthetic of Disney animations, New York graffiti and the raw art of Jean Dubuffet into an unprecedented new language. Untitled depicts two standing canine forms pulling apart a human body, forming a surreal echo of Goya’s Saturn, devouring his son (1820-1823, Museo del Prado, Madrid). Haring’s work has been described as modern hieroglyphics, and his standing dogs resemble Anubis, the Ancient Egyptian guardian to the underworld. Untitled (TV Dog) features a television in the shape of a quadruped barking dog. The TV set’s buttons and speakers resemble a face: this chimera is literally talking out of its rear. An atom is on the screen, conjuring up the spectre of nuclear war.
These two works have a storied provenance. Visser was renowned for designing modern classics such as the BR 02 sofa bed and the SZ 02 armchair. He was also a discriminating, forward-thinking collector, amassing works by Lucio Fontana, Sol Lewitt, Anselm Kiefer and the CoBrA artists. Visser was an early admirer of Haring, and acquired Untitled and Untitled (TV Dog) through the artist’s dealer Tony Shafrazi in the early 1980s. Both works were exhibited in Little Arena: Drawings and Sculptures from the Collection Visser (1984) at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, where they were previously on long-term loan. Prior to their time at the Kröller-Müller, they were housed in the Groninger Museum, Groningen.
Haring was a pioneer whose art went beyond the gallery and into the visual world of everyday culture. Part of its power lay in his development of a vocabulary of instantly recognisable motifs. The barking dog, which Haring used from 1980, is perhaps the most iconic of all. It represents the abusers of power, barking prejudice against minorities such as people who identify as LGBTQ or those with HIV. ‘In different combinations’, he said, ‘they were about the difference between human power and the power of animal instinct’ (K. Haring, quoted in D. Sheff, ‘Keith Haring, An Intimate Conversation’, Rolling Stone, August 1989). Contemporary conservative commentators believed New York was menaced by packs of stray canines. Haring depicted these abusers as the true dogs. Four decades later, Untitled and Untitled (TV Dog) stand as powerful reminders of Haring’s activist mission and exemplars of his revolutionary practice.
These two works have a storied provenance. Visser was renowned for designing modern classics such as the BR 02 sofa bed and the SZ 02 armchair. He was also a discriminating, forward-thinking collector, amassing works by Lucio Fontana, Sol Lewitt, Anselm Kiefer and the CoBrA artists. Visser was an early admirer of Haring, and acquired Untitled and Untitled (TV Dog) through the artist’s dealer Tony Shafrazi in the early 1980s. Both works were exhibited in Little Arena: Drawings and Sculptures from the Collection Visser (1984) at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, where they were previously on long-term loan. Prior to their time at the Kröller-Müller, they were housed in the Groninger Museum, Groningen.
Haring was a pioneer whose art went beyond the gallery and into the visual world of everyday culture. Part of its power lay in his development of a vocabulary of instantly recognisable motifs. The barking dog, which Haring used from 1980, is perhaps the most iconic of all. It represents the abusers of power, barking prejudice against minorities such as people who identify as LGBTQ or those with HIV. ‘In different combinations’, he said, ‘they were about the difference between human power and the power of animal instinct’ (K. Haring, quoted in D. Sheff, ‘Keith Haring, An Intimate Conversation’, Rolling Stone, August 1989). Contemporary conservative commentators believed New York was menaced by packs of stray canines. Haring depicted these abusers as the true dogs. Four decades later, Untitled and Untitled (TV Dog) stand as powerful reminders of Haring’s activist mission and exemplars of his revolutionary practice.