«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

The spotlight turning back on Haring is a welcome antidote to the concerns of today’s art world, which seems so depressingly obsessed with wealth and power. Haring frequently said that “art is for everybody,” and he meant it. You could see that belief in action in his public works—such as his dynamic Crack Is Wack mural in Harlem River Park—and his crowded Pop Shop, where he sold Haring art that anyone could afford, on buttons, posters, T-shirts, and more. He worked more like a performance artist than a traditional painter, often creating enormous pieces in front of an audience, with a boom box blasting, and he had real faith in art’s ability to transform people’s lives. Anyone, any age, anywhere can understand a Haring. His pared-down, instantly recognizable iconography—from crawling babies to men bedding men—is vibrant with a profound sense of social engagement. Yet it also represents a moving personal and collective journey, especially when it comes to issues of self-acceptance, which were such a big part of the gay movement in the late 70s and early 80s. Perhaps this explains the work’s surprising, haunting beauty. Idealism shines out of every one of Haring’s bold, sure lines—even in one of his last finished paintings, titled Unfinished Painting, which has a vast passage of emptiness, as if to signify all the great work that his death meant he’d never have the chance to do.

-Ingrid Sischy on Keith Haring
 2008