HONG KONG.- Phillips auction house is presenting Keith Haring: Falling Up at Hong Kong K11 MUSEA’s new K11 Art & Cultural Centre from 9 to 18 October. Located on the 6th floor of K11 MUSEA, this showcase is being presented alongside an inspiring collection of international artworks on the same floor which reflects and represents Hong Kong’s harbourfront culture and the fluid exchange of ideas in a multicultural society. Featuring a broad-ranging selection of works by the legendary American pop artist Keith Haring across his all-too-brief career, the showcase encompasses his instantly recognisable paintings, drawings, painted aluminum sculptures, and a grouping of memorabilia that are available for purchase through Phillips’ Private Sales.
Miety Heiden, Deputy Chairman and Head of Private Sales, Phillips, said: “One of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century, Keith Haring achieved new heights by redefining how the public engaged with and understood fine art. From his monumental public projects to his iconic prints, he blurred the division between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture in the remarkable body of work he executed before his untimely death at only 31 years old. This one-of-a-kind showcase will include the artist’s signature works with different themes and mediums, alongside a selection of the memorabilia collected by an acquaintance of Haring during the years he knew him and has kept them over the last few decades. We look forward to presenting works that exudes the artist’s playfulness and genius to both new and longstanding admires of his creation.”
A skilled draftsman at an early age, Keith Haring moved to New York in 1978 to attend the School of Visual Arts. While seemingly playful and transparent, Haring dealt with weighty subjects such as death, sex and war, enabling subtle and multiple interpretations. Throughout his tragically brief career, Haring refined a visual language of symbols, which he called icons, the origins of which began with his trademark linear style scrawled in white chalk on the black unused advertising spaces in subway stations. Haring developed and disseminated these icons far and wide, in his vibrant and dynamic style, from public murals and paintings to t-shirts and Swatch watches. His art bridged high and low, erasing the distinctions between rarefied art, political activism and popular culture.
