






Keith Haring at an End Apartheid rally, NYC, 1986
Untitled (Free South Africa), 1985
Set of 3 lithographs with collotype on rag paper, 81 x 100 cm (31¾ x 40 in). Edition of 60, each signed and numbered.
Free South Africa was Keith Haring’s response to the atrocities and racial segregation of Apartheid in South Africa. The black figure in this edition series is intentionally much larger than the white figure to express the absurdity of a white minority suppressing a majority indigenous Black population. The three-part lithograph series is one of Haring’s most poignant works with a socially critical reference. Using his unmistakable visual language that includes dynamic characters and motion lines surrounding them, he illustrates the energetic fight taking place and visualises the captured black figure’s eventual win over its suppressor. The series illustrates Haring's consistent effort to use art as a means of activism by making complex social issues accessible in a universal visual language.
In 1986, he used the image to print thousands of posters, which he then distributed in New York City in an effort to mobilize support against Apartheid.
In a March 28, 1987, journal entry, Haring wrote: “Control is evil. All stories of white men's ‘expansion’ and ‘colonization’ and ‘domination’ are filled with horrific details of the abuse of power and the misuse of people.”