Keith Haring was one of the first street artists that wanted to bring the street to the gallery. After what has occurred over the past few days I wonder if he was right in that theory. Keith
liked to mix music, clubs and celebrity to promote his product. Keith was a pioneer and it makes me so happy that the world continues to recognize him for his greatness. It is such a shame that AIDS took out so many of the creative people of our generation!

Wiz u no I never sleep - Haring is g.d and Banksy is his follower - just like u r my leader and I m your follower - I hope I and all my forum friends bag a print in the lottery in a few hours - if n e deserves it it is me I luv everything Haring and Mr. B - I want I want I want a print sssoooooooooooooooooooooo bad - its not about the money it is about the chase -!!!!!!!!

Keith is important for bringing graphic design to street art, and then taking street art to galleries, and then back again.

Both were happening to some degree before Keith Haring, but Keith's biggest contribution was how seamlessly he crossed back and forth over what were then much more delineated arts.

Basquiat's contribution was more for making the transition from street art to the gallery world, than going back and forth with nearly the exact same style of work, as Basquiat's fine art pieces were of a different nature than his street work.

In Keith Haring taking graphic design principles and fusing them with graffiti, he was one of the first to try to earn graffiti art a mass appeal rather than just underground or specific art insider appeal. His work was exceptionally accessible across mediums - which let him cross over work he put in the subway, to fortune 500-brands like Coca-Cola, to important political pieces, to fine art galleries.

And once again, its important that he did so largely with the same types of imagery. At a time where graffiti had almost an entirely negative connotation, he was taking works he was putting up on the street and applying them to Coca-Cola.

The brilliance of that contribution is probably under appreciated still.

Though the fact Haring primarily "vandalized" empty black ad space with chalk, certainly made him more palatable to the public than his peers who spray painted subway cars and walls.

He never fully crossed the bridge Banksy did where large scale out and out vandalism without permission could be seen and appreciated as art by general audiences, though he crossed it much of the way.

Truth is, if Keith Haring didn't die of AIDS so early (He was 31 or 32), he probably would have obtained other achievements. He did do a ton for the cause of AIDS. His work would be used extensively by AIDs related charities, even today, even to the point of over exposure, but Haring's primary motivation in his last years wasn't advancing his career, as much as advancing awareness of the disease, something he was instrumental in doing. Even today, proceeds from the rights to his art go to AIDS related charities.

Two of Shepard Fairey's biggest artistic achievements - perfecting branding through street art and using repetition of a ambiguous images via street art to impart certain messages - were both pioneered by Haring.

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As for the dog. I don't know what specific meaning it had. The radiant baby is often used by Keith as a play on Christ.

But the dog is often attributed as a somewhat urban play on pictograms of ancient people, as barking dogs are a familiar and recognizable part of city life, they parallel the animal depictions of early primitive art or the animal head depictions in Egyptian are, and they largely express ironic emotion in a lot of his work - barking at space ships, or robots, or anything that looks a bit out of order.

Here's a interesting documentary about Haring which was broadcasted on Dutch television about two years ago. The documentary contains some Dutch and has Dutch subtitles, but most of it is English.

cultuurgids.avro.nl/front/detailcloseup.html?item=5882464895b55f604e60416435db2804

-Everyone must watch the movie: The Universe of Keith Haring.

- As i posted on the other thread.. Put me down as not happy Banksy put KH's dog on a leash. maybe the same way others would react if Shep did print with a Banksy Rat on a leash. that said .. if i had won the lottery i would have bought the print.

- I think Banksy has taken the anonymity thing a step too far. as mentioned above KH was out in public all the time doing work for others and various community groups. maybe it was just simpler times and people weren't raving mad to get his work and queing for hours in the cold. but in hind sight.. they would have been smart to snap us as many as possible in 1980's as the chalk drawings are very valuable now. not to mention his signed prints .. and the originals are priced way beyond the valuation any current urban artist can even dream. <yet>

In my opinion .. KH far surpasses Banksy in breadth of work and delivery, scale, etc.. Hopefully Banksy soldiers on .. in public at some point .. and continues creating a large body of work that has impact for 30+ years as KH did.

Banksy is the hottest thing going right now for sure.. but skip your next $5,000-$10,000 Banksy purchase and buy a KH piece. your collection will benefit by the diversity.

you also have to remember how forward thinking KH was in 1980's .. Not a simple time to be a street artist, or gay, ... think reagan and the powerful conservative movement...

last thought. KH was free drawing with paint. no disrespect to the stencil artists... but i think there is an important difference to be discussed there.


-David

How do you mean "Respect" Lee?, as in some way trying to connect himself with Haring?, couldnt it just be a Dog on a lead?.

Ha "Flew at another level" i like that Lee. Oh to have my brain re cogged, im afraid these days i suffer from both short attention span and something else which i cant remember now, time was i would have analysed for ever and a day (well a few hours at most) whereas now i see only the pretty pictures which make me smile, this of course has its cycles according to the seasons, i over simplify Haring i know but the result is his work makes me smile and is a marker of a time in my life i enjoyed tremendously.

Massive influence on art, graffiti, fashion, music, and culture generally.
He evoked complex emotions/states such as love, sex, war, violence, birth in simple and striking ways that few others have been able to do.
His art was/is full of life.

This is a fantastic thread and such a wonderful change from the more dominant thread on the forum at the moment.

For me, KH's work is most impressive in how fluid the lines are and how much movement one observes when looking at a piece. His characters evoke a smile due to their seeming simplistic nature, yet at the same time are extremely powerful in the themes and messages he tried to convey.

I sincerely doubt any of this is making sense and I'm certain others could (and have) said it better. But I'm glad to see this true discussion of art going on and I'm also especially glad to see those with greater knowledge sharing with the rest of us. Thanks!

RPM

Etched, that is terrific. Is it an og? And, is it yours?

Og calander page - made me laugh that did.
Apologies for my mistake!
A small og like that would be lovely to own though, wouldnt it?
The calander page (og) looks pretty cool though.

Its making me smile that one J.

That's the spirit of guys like LA2 and KH. Money wasn't the priority for them, their priority lied in spreading and sharing values, happiness.... So what J. said didn't shock me at all.

You can as well find some time some pieces on ebay US.

But yeah for people who missed out on the Banksy print (and who have some cash), you can have a authentic KH OG for the price of a signed Banksy print..

photo.auction.fr/4/8/7/1291047137988223.jpeg

Sold last Saturday £2.2K at auction (over the estimate)

Rather small though!