HARING Keith (1958-1990) and - Lot 55

MONEY ART - URBAN ART SALE

In this sale, the majority of works are on an identical medium (the dollar bill).

The use of banknotes, and in particular US dollars, as an artistic medium dates back over 30 years.

In the 80s, Andy WARHOL often used widely-used American dollar bills.

He wanted to prove that every everyday object, whether old, defective or worthless, gains enormous value when treated by an artist.

Often associated with Keith HARING and BASQUIAT, he circulated bills hand-signed by his friends.

Today, many artists have also seized on this medium to practice their art, using a variety of techniques for contemporary creations.

THE WORLD OF TOONS :

The main techniques used in this world are :

-Stencils, whether single for a single original 1/1 banknote, or multiple when the same stencils are used to create the same motif several times over. (KASH ART BY KASTELLAN, KUNTS...)

-Original works created by hand, directly on the substrate. (MOABIT, STEFANOV, GAGLIARDO...)

STREET ART:

-In this case, banknotes are used to reproduce works created on city walls around the world (BANKSY, KUNTS, BASM, EMO...).

CONTEMPORARY CREATIONS:

-The banknote becomes a privileged medium for the creation of unique works specific to the artist's universe (BARRY, ZAOUIA, LUSKY...) and for the use of serigraphs embellished by hand by the author of the work. (EMO, BOYLE, GILLETTE...)

In many cases, the banknote becomes the ideal bearer of a social and/or political message (BANKSY, LUSKY...).

Andy WARHOL is said to have asked a journalist how one could transform a $1 bill into a $1,000 bill without being a magician!

Andy Warhol took an old $1 bill out of his wallet, signed it and handed it to the reporter, saying: "Now here's a genuine, one-of-a-kind $1,000 bill!

Andy WARHOL liked to prove that any object, even a used one, could become a valuable work of art if a renowned artist took it and transformed it.

He associated his friend Keith HARING and Jean-Michel BASQUIAT with his approach.

At first, the idea was simply to sign dollars, making them rare and authentic objects.

But wanting to offer genuine works of art, they then decided to evolve this somewhat minimalist approach by adding a screen-printed artwork to each bill.

This process made it possible to reproduce the silkscreens with precision, while respecting the size of a banknote. They mixed the colors of each copy themselves, creating an original, unique and authentic work of art.

These early works, cancelled in 1976, are indeed particularly rare.

The first works were produced on 1, 2 and 5 dollar bills and on Italian lira bills (their friend, collector and gallery owner Lucio AMELIO was Italian!).

As the stock of old banknotes was exhausted, they used bills from China (Yi Jiao), Russia (rubles), Mozambique (Escudos), Argentina (Pesos) and elsewhere, to create new variations.

The artists only signed works created and completed in their presence. The simultaneous presence of the 3 artists was quite rare, (especially that of Jean-Michel BASQUIAT), which explains the low number of works signed by three hands.

Keith HARING, wishing to stand out from his mentor Andy WARHOL and offer larger-scale works, decided to apply the same principle of silkscreen printing to sheets of postage stamps, signed in his own hand.

Keith Haring collected cancelled stamp plates from all over the world, which explains why he used stamps from so many different countries (England, China, Russia...).

All these tickets and stamp plates were entrusted to Lucio AMELIO (an Italian friend and gallery owner).

The tickets received Lucio AMELIO's dry embossing stamp, a US stamp with official postmark, the TONY SHAFRAZI GALLERY reference number stamp, the Lucio AMALIO s.r.l. signature stamp and an authentication hologram.

There are three different cancellation dates. The first works are dated 1976 and 1977 (the rarest), then 1987.

All these works were stored in Lucio AMELIO's warehouses. It took over 30 years for these forgotten works to reappear on the market.