Throwback Thursday Remembers Keith Haring

Earlier this week, and 30+ years ago, we lost one of the iconic gay artists to come around. Yer boy Hank here doesn't use the word "icon" very often. I think it's a term as overused as "Yasss queen!" or "O Fortuna" in films. But in this case, with the length and breadth of Haring's visual reach during his lifetime and most certainly after his death, the term certainly fits. People know his work, if not his name. Haring died of HIV complications on February 16th, 1990. He was 31.

Haring was born in Reading, PA, in 1958, and was interested in art from an early age. He was drawn to colorful and distinct images in Disney, Bugs Bunny cartoons, and Dr. Seuss. With his job in the late 70's at the Pittsburgh Arts an Craft Center, he came into close contact with influences like Pierre Alechinsky, who sparked his interest in large-scale murals, and the sculptor Christo, from whom he learned about incorporating public spaces into his art. It is no great leap then to see how, within ten years, he'd go from NY subway graffiti artist to renowned muralist, incorporating themes of sex-positiveness, AIDS awareness, anti-crack and anti-apartheid messaging, among cute images of dogs and hearts and lovers.

The 80's were an energetic, propulsive time when the underground was coming out in the open. A little. Haring became friends with and was a contemporary of the likes of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel (who would later direct a stunning Basquiat biopic), as well as up-and-comers in other forms of art, like Madonna and Grace Jones. Haring was one of the friends she paid tribute to in her most recent concert tour, and he famously painted the 30-foot dress for Jones's "I'm Not Perfect" video in which he can be seen making his creation.

One thing that is evident in much of his work is the idea of movement. In the video above, his flowing gown with its tribal lines works best when she puts them in motion. He often made graffiti art on moving subway cars. Little accents of lines at characters' joints and corners imtimated at movement. This was not an accident. Haring wrote the following in his journal in 1978:

I am becoming much more aware of movement. The importance of movement is intensified when a painting becomes a performance. The performance (the act of painting) becomes as important as the resulting painting.

His graffiti work in the early 80's was done mostly with white chalk or paint on the black blank spaces of large advertising posters throughout the NY subway system. "The Radiant Baby" became his most easily identifiable and repeated image, along with his barking dog, spaceships, and hearts.

Again, you see the movement.

Haring traveled the world, and the world embraced him. He's had gallery showings, murals, sculptures and paintings literally across the globe, often working to highlight those issues which became culturally, socially, and politically important to him. Especially HIV and AIDS towards the end of his life. A few months before his death, he told The LA Times:

My life is my art, it's intertwined. When AIDS became a reality in terms of my life, it started becoming a subject in my paintings. The more it affected my life the more it affected my work

Religious imagery often pops up in his work, as he was fairly devout as a young person. The last piece he created was a triptych sculpture, "The Life of Christ." You can see it if you go to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Manhattan's Upper West Side near Columbia University, placed with reverence in one of the cathedral's many spaces for socially and politically progressive art installations. Fun fact, the cathedral is the one mentioned in the Suzanne Vega hit "Tom's Diner." Oh, and Tom's Diner? Well, that just happens to be Tom's Restaurant, known to most as "The Seinfeld Restaurant."

There is simply too much about this gifted talent to go into here. So check out his Wikipedia page for so much more info.

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