Keith Haring: The Political Line

February 8, 2015 | de Young

A few week ago (even though it feels like yesterday), I went to visit the Keith Haring exhibit at the de Young museum in San Francisco. I was quite excited to explore Haring's body of work on display as well as be able to see them in person. I remembered watching Sesame Street (YouTube) when I was little and seeing animations of his usual caricatures (even though the animations were after his death and not actually created by him) I always thought his figures, while simple, were fun and attractive.

Me at the exhibit

This exhibit at the de Young had a pretty wide range of his work: subway drawings, sculptures, collage and, of course, paintings. I was surprised by the extent of different media he used: pottery, tarps, wood, canvas, paper, metal and much more. The range of subject matters that his works covered also intrigued me: racism, sexuality, technology, consumerism, consumption and ecology, to name a few. His imagery has abstraction mixed in with realistic and/or surrealistic yet simplified forms and objects/shapes (one of his pieces was in the shape of a giant penis covered in surrealistic human and animal shapes). 

Untitled, 1983

Acrylic on vinyl tarpaulin

Collection of Terrae Motus, Palazzo Reale, Caserta, Italy

Untitled, 1981

Acrylic on canvas

Private Collection

I absolutely loved the different venues for getting his art out in public places. The subway drawing collection was one of my favorites, it reminded me of how long graffiti and poster art has been around. This section also really emphasized how public and expansive Haring's art in New York was at the time. It's pretty awesome that these panels have been saved and are held in collections now. 

I wasn't able to get any good photos in this section because they are all held under glass but I wanted to show the one below because of the tag over Haring's work... there's some subway tagger in New York whose hasty random work is being shown in art galleries and museums - a bit ironic. Another panel gave me a giggle because someone came after Haring and wrote "HARING - STOP IT - ENOUGH ALREADY" next to his chalk drawing. 

Untitled (Subway Drawing), 1982-1984

Chalk on paper

99 Cents Fine Art, New York, and private collection

While the exhibition was quite busy and I probably didn't get to see and examine as much as I would have liked to, a small little thing I noticed was some of the owners/collections of the works. I noticed one owned by Tommy Mattola and another by Sir Elton John (photo below). This detail highlighted the importance of Keith's work in the art world at the time and the legacy he has left behind. 

The theme of this exhibit was mostly about his political activism and the subject matters with the huge significance. One of my favorite pieces was from the section on “Ecocide and Apocalypse.” It’s called Walking in the Rain and depicts a weird creature in the rain over-laid onto an abstract blue and white background (photo below). This represented the acid rain he experienced on one of his trips and the affects of pollution. While being a very warped and odd looking figure on an abstract background, I felt like this message was loud and clear.

Walking in the Rain, 1989

Acrylic and enamel on canvas

Collection of the Keith Haring Foundation

I felt like the de Young did a great job with the exhibit, showing of his diverse range of works and the layout had a great flow to it. One of the only things that bothered me was that, once you got through the whole exhibit, you were shot out into the gift shop. With 90’s hip hop music playing, t-shirts for sale, coffee mugs, etc. It felt a bit contradictory since one of the sections of the exhibit had to do with “Consumerism and Consumption” and how he felt about some of the art world, capitalism and money in general. It seemed a little off to me (even though I bought a book of the showing). This show was one to mark off the list!

(more information on the exhibition here)