Andy Mickey Mouse 1986
Swatch 1984
Keith Haring Lucio Amelio Gallery Solo Exhibition, 1983
Program House 2, 1991
Entertainment Gallery, 1983
Knokke 87, 1987
Tony Schaflaz Gallery 1982 ◎ Yu Muyun
Exhibition: Meet Keith Harlem
Duration: Until June 13
Venue: Meet the Art Museum
Maybe you never know who Keith Haring is, but you've probably seen his graffiti: a little baby lying on the ground, a roaring puppy, a little person who raises his hand and cheers, these little symbols are simple and unforgettable, you will see them on Uniqlo's co-branded T-shirts, you will see them on the wall of a bar, and you may buy a souvenir of these little people printed on any tourist attraction, long before the birth of The Apple's emoji. Haring invented a set of symbols that can be understood without any translation, no matter in which country or city in the world, anyone can get resonance from his work, can understand what he wants to express, it can be said that Keith Haring did what foreign language teachers can't do - he created a universal language.
Pennsylvania-born Keith Haring showed a talent for painting from an early age—when he was less than a year old, his father stuffed him with a crayon, and he quickly drew curves and circles. In his own recollections, Keith Haring himself was interested in these "concise lines" since he was a child, perhaps because his father was an amateur cartoonist, and Keith benefited greatly from the bold way of expression and the refined lines of comics. When he saw Andy Warhol's bold and impactful work as an advertising poster during an art museum trip organized by his high school, he was impressed, determined to pursue art, and went to the Pittsburgh Art Academy after graduating from high school. He then arrived at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he soon discovered that this was his heart: Rock 'n' Roll, hippie culture, mass media, punk, sexual liberation movements and drug abuse crises and, of course, graffiti.
So Keith Haring lived a life of working in the club and making friends at the same time, and he was humorous and friendly, and he soon made a lot of friends. Jenny Siegel, then director of the school of art, said: "From the beginning, Keith made the impression on me that he was a determined young man who knew what he wanted to do and did it, and compared to other students, he created some eccentric works. ”
The eccentric work she was referring to might be Haring poking out a little Lou zi at the subway station, his subway graffiti painting. Keith Haring was scribbling graffiti around new York subway stations, and sometimes arrested and arrested by the police, because of these strange patterns and strange behavior, Keith Haring soon appeared on the news of the local television station, interviewing him and asking him why he was painting in the subway station, "so that millions of people would see these paintings." Keith replied.
What he said is also the truth, painting has always had an invisible aesthetic threshold, to deliberately run to the art museum to see the painting, not necessarily understand, even if New York has a rich reserve of art works, for most people this is also irrelevant to their daily life.
In the news program, Keith Haring said that the opportunity for him to do these subway doodles was to find that in the subway station in New York, someone covered the advertisement on the billboard with black paper, and he found that these black cardboards were very suitable for drawing boards, so he took the powder and wrote a test to draw it, feeling good, you can finish a painting in a few minutes, run after painting, and you can paint more than thirty pictures a day. The next morning when people go to work on the subway, they find someone "scribbling," but as Keys puts it, "most people who take the subway will see these images, but they won't know who drew them and how they came about." He thought it was nice, even if questioned by the host, "This is illegal action, right?" Keith smiled and replied, "Yeah, sometimes I have to give them $10 to bribe them, and some of the cops have become my fans." ”
So why did Keith Haring paint these graffiti? Is it to be famous? Or is he actually a business genius who has found a great shortcut to advertising himself? Surprisingly, Keith Haring does these things for a simple reason, he just wants to paint and he wants to share them with everyone. Otherwise, why would anyone paint as tirelessly as he did in a place where it could be wiped off in just a few minutes? There is also the risk of being arrested by the police. Once Keith Haring was painting in a subway station, and a man stood behind him all the time watching him paint, and finally the man who was watching the hilarity couldn't help but ask, "Why are you standing here?" Who do you do things for? Keith replied, "For you." ”
Keith Haring's work is more casual and vivid than his predecessors whose works were collected in the museum, and Yoko Ono once said of him: "He stands outside the art world because his art is the art of the people, he is like a pop music producer - reaching the people with songs, John Lennon did this, the Beatles did the same, Keith did the same thing, which is why he was able to provoke such heated discussion and exchange." ”
Keys rarely signs his paintings, but like other street graffiti-loving Rangers, he has his own logo: a glowing baby with a pouting butt and a puppy barking puppy.
As for why he chose graffiti, Keith says he was inspired by street art, and there are often traces of graffiti left by teenagers on the streets of New York. "Graffiti is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, the kids who created them were all small, all from the streets, but their mastery of painting surprised me, I mean, this technique of painting just with spray paint is amazing, it's incredibly hard, the fluidity of the lines, the proportions of the images, the hard-sided black lines that hold the patterns together, that's the line I've been obsessed with since I was a kid!"
After paintings at New York subway stations were discovered by millions of people who rode the subway every day, Keith Haring quickly became famous, galleries began to display his work, and he himself received more creative commissions, starting to paint large murals in places such as university auditoriums and square walls. The murals also consist of his favorite little man and puppy motif, and Keith Haring adds popular culture symbols like love, anti-war symbols, and Mickey Mouse. These seemingly simple little people and puppies are not as easy to draw as we think - the more generalized the pattern, the more difficult it is to draw, and it is often formed when painting, and there is no room for modification. But Keith Haring has always maintained his original intention: to create images that everyone can understand and bring a good mood to everyone. He loved making friends, especially with his children, and despite the talented artist's early death from AIDS, he continued to paint until his death and founded the Case Harlem Foundation to fund AIDS organizations and child assistance programs.
Keith Haring's graffiti represents the fashion and trend of an era, they are not just toys on some fashion show, nor will they be just a distinctive symbol for punching cards.
This time met the Beijing station Keith Haring solo exhibition brought by the art museum, the number of visitors is quite large, but the exhibition effect is not satisfactory, the ticket price of 168 yuan is almost comparable to the ticket price of the artists of Ullens Center for Contemporary Art and Mumu Art Museum and other professional art museums, but the venue is narrow, the exhibition is sloppy, and there is almost no curatorial awareness Of the exhibition hall planning has turned the entire exhibition hall into a trend punching point, for understanding the artist's life, the connotation behind the work lacks relevant guidance and discussion. When the Internet celebrity art museum becomes a fashionable endorsement, it also means that its vitality is strongly attached to the internet celebrity economy, born of internet celebrities and died of internet celebrities, before becoming a simple punch point, it had more things to do.