JOSEPH BEUYS | UNTITLED

Estate of Keith Haring, New York

The Keith Haring Foundation (by bequest from the above in 1990) 

Prominent radical Conceptual artist Joseph Beuys was a significant inspiration for Keith Haring. Even before meeting Beuys through mutual friend Andy Warhol, Haring held the controversial German artist in great esteem. Known for his practice of “social sculpture,” the theory that every aspect of life could be approached creatively, Beuys attempted to make art more democratic by collapsing the space between art and life and advocated for the use of art as a vehicle for social change. This theory resonated with Haring, whose work responded to contemporary social and political events, and who aimed to make art accessible to everyone by filling common public spaces with powerful drawings.

Drawings like the present Untitled, an example of Beuys’s skilled draftsmanship, represent only a fraction of his diverse body of work, which ranges from traditional media of drawing, painting, and sculpture, to process-oriented, or time-based "action" art. These shamanistic performances were meant to suggest how art may exercise a healing effect, on both artist and audience, when it takes up social, political, or psychological subjects. Haring, likewise, used colorful, animated characters and witty slogans to tackle challenging social issues, like the AIDS and cocaine epidemics. Haring likely kept the present work in his collection as a reminder of the important values he and Beuys shared.