’80s Pop with a Message
Keith Haring was undeniably one of the enfants terribles of the ’80s. His career as an artist really took off when he moved to New York and started using the subway as his laboratory. The eighties were a decade known for exposing art in a more alternative way, outside the gallery and museum system. Downtown streets, clubs and the subway were ideal locations to create truly public art, which Keith Haring wanted to devote his career to. Together with Basquiat and Scharf, he played a crucial role in the underground culture of his generation.
Haring’s style is very unique and recognizable at first glance. A singular kind of graphic expression based on the primacy of the line was his trademark. Recurring motives such as barking dogs, crawling babies and flying saucers determined his work also.
His art didn’t only have an aesthetical aim, Keith Haring also processed loads of social and political subjects in his work. He was an HIV/AIDS activist, the disease from which he died at the age of 31 became an essential topic. Moreover, he took part in campaigns for nuclear disarmament, created the famous Crack is Wack mural and designed anti-apartheid posters. As an openly gay man, he’s up till now an important figurehead of the LGTBQ+ community.
The Keith Haring retrospective opens on the 6th of December, 2019 at Bozar in Brussels. For more info visit bozar’s website.
