Keith Haring
Keith Haring
The Journey of the Radiant Baby
During the eighties, I traveled to my office at The Creative Black Book by subway when it was just as easy to walk, because I wanted to see the Keith Haring's chalk drawings on black paper in spaces where advertising posters were removed. Haring would sneak into the subway stations in the middle of the night to leave his graffiti-like messages. These images were often signed with an iconic symbol or tag later called The Radiant Baby. He was arrested frequently.
Haring was able to look at the world and to make political statements with a sense of humor and whimsey. I loved his direct flowing lines often drawn with single brush strokes or pieces of chalk. At times his images dealt with violence. Others were erotic.
I would see him in the East Village at The Mud Club or Club 57 in the 1980's often with an entourage of friends and hanger's on. The East Village dance club scene was documented by photographer Tseng Kwong Chi. His career lasted for a decade of abundance before he was stricken with an AIDS related disease. He died in 1990 at age 32.
I was able to see three retrospectives of his work over the years. One at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1993, again at SFMOMA in 1998, and last weekend in Reading PA. The Reading Public Museum mounted a superb installation that captured the energy of this radiant artist. There were original pages from a book entitled Red and Blue suspended from the ceiling floating in front of vintage Japanese prints making a connection I had never seen before. Red and Blue was created as a collaboration with artist Kenny Scharf's daughter Zeno when she was a little girl. Haring was great with children and often invited them to play. He invited collaboration in his murals. A 550 feet by 8 feet mural in Chicago was painted by Haring in one day. Dozens of students were invited to fill in the forms he created with dancing lines. BTW the entire mural was done as a spontaneous work without preliminary drawings or plans. Parts of the mural are on exhibition in Reading.
Another fascinating aspect of Haring's work was his interest in diverse markets for his work.
In April 1986, Haring opened the Pop Shop, a retail store in Soho selling T-shirts, toys, posters, buttons and magnets bearing his images. Haring considered the shop to be an extension of his work and painted the entire interior of the store in an abstract black on white mural, creating a striking and unique retail environment. The shop was intended to allow people greater access to his work, which was now readily available on products at a low cost. The shop received criticism from many in the art world, however Haring remained committed to his desire to make his artwork available to as wide an audience as possible, and received strong support for his project from friends, fans and mentors including Andy Warhol.I am a great believer in diversity for artists of all kinds. What follows may be heresy to some of you. It is the opposite of what you have been told. For commercial photographers, it is also a matter of survival in a diminishing marketplace. If your broker recommended that you consolidate your portfolio into one stock, you would probably fire them. In what ways can you identify and place your work in new markets? How can you diversify your portfolios? Are there ways to diversify that allows you to maintain your vision? I am working on a presentation on diversity to deliver at Photo Plus this Fall.
(From Keith Haring's bio)
The exhibition, Keith Haring: Journey of the Radiant Baby, is the first to explore Haring's transformation of 1980s youth culture into an artistic vision that reshaped the art world and attracted a worldwide audience. The exhibition, co-curated by Dr. Rachael Arauz and Ron Roth, brings together nearly 100 of Haring's works, including his trademark painted tarps, sculpture, prints, furniture and paintings, many of which have never before been exhibited. Exhibition highlights include a selection of the original New York Subway drawings that played a critical role in establishing his fame and one of his last works, a haunting gold finished altarpiece, on exclusive loan from the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City. This exhibition and accompanying catalogue document for the first time the unique body of work he completed through collaborations with young friends and artists such as LA II, Kenny Scharf, Basquiat, Sean Kalish, Zena Scharf, Sean Lennon, and Nina Clemente. The exhibition also includes some of Haring's most memorable public art projects including a section of the Chicago Mural Project from 1989, the mural he produced for the White House Easter Egg Hunt in 1988, and the installation of the complete construction fence he designed for Marquette University in 1983. Part of the exhibition is devoted to Haring's association with his hometown in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, and includes newly discovered work from his years growing up there. Haring remains one of the most popular and controversial artists of the late twentieth century. Known for his combination of talent, charisma and protean energy, he created unified, powerful compositions with compelling imagery that captured the attention of the public and catapulted him into international recognition that continues to this day.
Comments
Ian, great post! I am on board my man! :-)
Posted by: Willie | April 6, 2006 04:07 PM
Haring's public work need the blighted urban decay of the 80's to take hold. The highwater of AIDS and Crack in the inner city was the context for his work. The darker side might be the notion that vandalism (as graffitti) in the name of art was a suitable way for some one to express themselves.
Diversity. Yes, Amen.
Posted by: Ron Diorio | April 17, 2006 04:24 AM
Great show, Shea and I went the other week on your recommendation.
Yes, the 11 year old say the ‘mature only’ section too. (He’s used to that kind of thing in museums.)
The whole museum is worth the visit. Some rinky-dink things, but I'd say about 95% is a treasure waiting to be discovered.
Posted by: kevin Black | April 19, 2006 11:56 AM