Keith Haring The King (Littman p.115) For Sale

The King is a lithograph created by the artist in 1989. Though not included in the series, the print is stylistically very similar to the artist’s 1988 portfolio, Apocolypse, which is a visual narration of a surrealist hellscape.  

In Haring’s Apocolypse portfolio, many illustrated plates (accompanied by the experimental writing of Beat writer, William Burroughs) feature futuristic robots and computers. The King follows suit in blending the visual syntax of technology with Royalty. As with the portfolio, the scene here is a sinister, ominous one: a large hourglass on the left of the print has nearly reached its end, and a smaller hourglass is held up by a dagger on the right. The sense of urgency and doom can be directly tied to an overarching theme in Apocolypse, and in the artist’s personal life: his battle with AIDs. Haring was diagnosed with the virus a year earlier, and would die a year later after this work: in it, the viewer can understand the artist’s heightened awareness of his mortality.  

The Royal theme of The King is understood not in the true sense of monarchy but in fame. A commercial artist whose artwork had captured the imagination of a mass audience, Haring enjoyed meteoric success in his lifetime.