Keith Haring

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Keith Haring (1986)

Keith Allen Haring (born May 4, 1958 in Reading , Pennsylvania , † February 16, 1990 in New York City ) was an American artist whose style of painting can be recognized by its clear lines and two-dimensionality. He took some of his painting methods from the graffiti scene, but without being directly influenced by it. Haring is considered a representative of Pop Art of the 1980s.

life and work

Haring grew up in Kutztown and became interested in art at an early age thanks to his father, Allen Haring, who drew cartoon characters with him. In 1976 he studied advertising graphics for two semesters at the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh . In 1978 he had his first solo exhibition at the Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts Center. In the same year he moved to New York and enrolled in the School of Visual Arts (SVA). At this time he made the acquaintance of emerging artists such as Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat .

From 1980 he organized exhibitions and demonstrations at Club 57 . At the same time he created his first works, which were aimed at a public audience: Using a lettering stencil, he sprayed the text Clones Go Home on the walls and along the sidewalks between the borders of the East and West Village. He wanted to make a statement against gentrification , i.e. the influx of the new rich into his neighborhood. He also distributed collages that were deceptively real to the front pages of the " New York Post " and contained provocative titles such as "Reagan Slain by Hero Cop" (Eng. "Reagan killed by heroic policeman"). In June 1980 he was invited to take part in the Times Square Show . In the autumn of the same year, Haring left the SVA and continued to work at Club 57 and the Mudd Club , where he curated exhibitions. Inspired by the graffiti scene, he started to leave his tags at the same time , for example the crawling baby or the dog. This gave rise to the urge to create his "Subways Drawings" on empty, dark advertising spaces.

In October 1982 the first solo exhibition was at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery. Haring had previously worked as an assistant at Shafrazi and gained experience in the curatorial field. He painted for the exhibition for the first time in a long time, as his work had previously concentrated on drawing. With the graffiti artist LA II , he painted reproductions of famous, fluorescent sculptures, such as a bust of David by Michelangelo. This resulted in labyrinthine images in which all spaces were filled in so that a maximum of information could be presented in the smallest of areas.

The exhibition made Haring's international breakthrough possible: he received invitations to Rotterdam and Amsterdam and took part in Documenta 7 in Kassel . The Spectacolor Billboard in New York Times Square played animations of its icons at regular intervals for a month. In 1983 he took part in the Whitney Biennale and the São Paulo Biennale . He met Andy Warhol and became friends with him. For Warhol he painted an Andy Mouse , which is supposed to embody a mixture of Andy Warhol and Mickey Mouse .

In 1984 he painted walls in Sydney , Melbourne , Rio de Janeiro , Minneapolis and Manhattan ; In 1985 he began to paint on canvas, previously he had either painted on paper or vinyl tarpaulin. At the same time the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux showed a solo exhibition by him. He also took part in the Paris Biennale . In 1986 he opened the Pop Shop in SoHo , New York , where his works and copies were sold. The shop closed in 2005. He painted walls in Amsterdam , Paris , Phoenix and in Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie on October 26, 1986. For her video I'm not Perfect and the film Vamp , he painted the body of Grace Jones . In 1987 he had solo exhibitions in Helsinki and Antwerp, among others .

Keith Haring also designed the cover of the charity Christmas record A Very Special Christmas for the benefit of the Special Olympics .

Subway drawings

Haring made the first of his so-called “Subway Drawings” in December 1980 and continued it until around 1985. The corridors of the New York subway system are decorated with numerous billboards. If the boards are not covered with current advertising posters, the fixed frame is covered with black waste paper as a kind of placeholder. Haring painted these with white chalk . A medium that is easy to transport and inexpensive to purchase and that allowed him to apply his typical continuous line quickly, evenly and with extremely high contrast to the black paper. In addition, no prior preparation in the studio was necessary, which benefited Haring's intuitive and fast style. He always designed his pictures in the subway corridors in a similar way. First a rectangle was drawn as a border for the picture, sometimes these were numbered, giving the appearance of a comic strip. Then they were filled with his typical motifs (barking dogs, UFOs, baby rays, televisions, crosses, people, etc.).

Haring repeatedly emphasized that he deliberately did not give his Subway works a title in order not to provide the viewer with an interpretation given by the artist. According to Haring, his works not only have one meaning or interpretation, but are as diverse as the people who look at them and deal with them. The forms that his works contain are not strange, but easily recognizable, so that every viewer can quickly develop his own association even without a given title . In addition, his motifs in the New York subway are primarily designed for a passing audience, who can grasp the structure of the image just by looking at it. Haring painted without sketches or studies, quickly and spontaneously without any changes. He was able to create up to thirty subway drawings a day, which from 1980 to 1985 added up to a total of around five to ten thousand pictures made in the New York subway system. Most of his depictions were captured by his friend, photographer Tseng Kwong Chi .

Illness and death

Tuttomondo , 1989, mural, Chiesa di Sant'Antonio, Pisa, Italy

Haring got involved with his art in various charity campaigns against AIDS . Even before 1988, when he was diagnosed with the immunodeficiency disease himself, he dealt with the subject in works such as “AIDS” from 1985. In 1988 a branch of the Pop Shop was opened in Tokyo, but it had to be closed again after some time . Together with children he painted walls in Chicago and Atlanta . In 1989 he got involved in the widespread campaign for AIDS prevention. In the summer of the same year he completed his last public work, the "Tuttomondo" on the outer wall of the Church of Sant'Antonio in Pisa. The non-profit Keith Haring Foundation was set up by him while he was still alive, and an exhibition was held at Galerie 121 in Antwerp. Haring died in 1990 as a result of his illness. Shortly before his death, he painted some pictures that deal with death.

Posthumous appreciation

In 1991, the American cultural journalist and biographer John Gruen wrote Haring's life story (Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1991) . The documentary film The Universe of Keith Haring , made in 2008 by director Christina Clausen, contains sound recordings of interviews with Haring (also in German translation). Madonna and Andy Warhol starred in the film . The film also shows that Keith Haring worked all his life with black graffiti artists, which was still very unusual at the time, for example with Fred Brathwaite , but above all for six years with Angel Ortiz aka LA II, and with the dancer Bill T. Jones . Haring lived the principle of diversity , which is also expressed in his political works, which unequivocally take a stand against racism and homophobia .

In 2018 Keith Haring was honored with a comprehensive staff in the Albertina (Keith Haring. The Alphabet) .

Works in public collections

Australia

Belgium

Denmark

Germany

France

  • CAPC - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux
  • MAMAC - Musee d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain Nice, Nice

Italy

Canada

  • National Gallery of Canada - Musée des beaux-arts du Canada, Ottawa , ON

Austria

Portugal

  • Berardo Museum - Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, Lisbon

Spain

Hungary

United States

  • Kennedy Museum of Art, Athens, OH
  • MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA
  • Castellani Art Museum, Lewiston, NY
  • MOCA - The Museum of Contemporary Art - Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
  • Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
  • Lever House Art Collection, New York, NY
  • Museum of Modern Art , New York, NY
  • Whitney Museum of American Art New York, NY
  • The West Collection, Oaks, PA
  • Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
  • Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA
  • Broad Contemporary Art Museum, Santa Monica, CA
  • Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
  • Runnymede Sculpture Farm, Woodside, CA

literature

Film and visual reception

  • Silence = Death , R .: Rosa von Praunheim , 1990
  • The Universe of Keith Haring , R .: Clausen, Christina, screenplay: Clausen, Christina. F / It: 2008. Version: DVD. 82 min.
  • B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin 1979-1989 , R .: Jörg A. Hoppe, Klaus Maeck, Heiko Lange. Script: Jörg A. Hoppe, Klaus Maeck, Heiko Lange. D: DEF Media GmbH 2015. Version DVD. 96 min. Appearance by Haring painting the Berlin Wall.

Web links

Commons : Keith Haring  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Gruen: Keith Haring. The authorized biography . Ed .: John Gruen. 2nd Edition. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-05179-3 , p. 67-74 .
  2. ↑ John Gruen: Keith Haring. The authorized biography . Ed .: John Gruen. 2nd Edition. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-05179-3 , p. 5-6 .
  3. ↑ Alexandra Kolossa: Keith Haring - A life for art . 1st edition. Taschen, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8228-3143-3 , pp. 12-13 .
  4. ↑ Alexandra Kolossa: Keith Haring - A life for art . 1st edition. Taschen, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8228-3143-3 , pp. 15 .
  5. ↑ Alexandra Kolossa: Keith Haring - A life for art . 1st edition. Taschen, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8228-3143-3 , pp. 19-23 .
  6. ↑ Alexandra Kolossa: Keith Haring - A life for art . 1st edition. Taschen, Cologne, p. 31-32 .
  7. ↑ Alexandra Kolossa: Keith Haring - A life for art. Cologne, 2004, p. 27.
  8. ^ Keith Haring: Keith Haring Journals, New York, 1997, pp. 154-157.
  9. ↑ Alexandra Kolossa: Keith Haring - A life for art. Cologne, 2004, p. 22.
  10. ^ Julian Cox: Introduction - Social Justice and Public Display. In: Dieter Buchhart (Ed.): Keith Haring - The Political Line. New York, 2014, p. 25.
  11. ↑ Alexandra Kolossa: Keith Haring - A life for art. Cologne, 2004, p. 27.
  12. ^ Dieter Buchhart: The Endless Political Line. In: Dieter Buchhart (Ed.): Keith Haring - The Political Line. New York, 2014, p. 35.
  13. ^ Henry Geldzahler (ed.): Art in Transit - Subway drawings by Keith Haring. New York, 1984.
  14. ↑ Alexandra Kolossa: Keith Haring - A life for art . 1st edition. Taschen, Cologne 2004, p. 74-90 .
  15. ↑ LA2GRAFFITIARTIST.COM: BIOGRAPHY / EXHIBITIONS. Retrieved November 29, 2019 (American English).
  16. ^ The Universe of Keith Haring. Retrieved November 29, 2019 (German).
  17. ↑ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Political Pop Art was his trademark: Memory of Keith Haring | DW | 05/04/2018. Retrieved November 29, 2019 (German).
personal data
SURNAME Haring, Keith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haring, Keith Allen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American artist
DATE OF BIRTH May 4th 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Reading , Pennsylvania , USA
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1990
Place of death New York City , New York , USA