Keith Haring… Disturbingly Profound…

Keith… Haring‘s…

Gigantic… works…

Were all over… the Metro walls…

Thought… provoking…

Riveting… posters… drawings…

Keith… would have been…

Vindicated…

Having just visited Haring’s exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris… I too… was impressed by his formidable works… displayed not only in the Musée but also in the Metro… for that’s where it all started…

Upon entering the Musée d’Art Moderne… a bespectacled Artist is staring thoughtfully… provocatively… (from a huge photograph or poster where he is seen working with his beloved paints)… at the people below… who were there because of their complete fascination with his works…

Keith Haring… is not to be ignored nor taken lightly…  Every wall in the Impressive Musée was groaning with the weight… of his powerful… massive canvasses…

It is a “wide ranging retrospective” for Keith Haring… 1958-1990…

Profoundly political in subject matter… 250 pictures on canvasses… tarpaulins… and about twenty monumental works were presented.  A huge undertaking… one of the largest exhibits of his works… ever.

Keith Haring‘s strong graphic style is inimitable… and often overpowering…

He exhibited with Andy Warhol… Jean-Michel Basquiat… Roy Lichtenstein… Jenny Holzer… among others as well as in museums and “biennales” globally…

 

A subversive militant Pop Artist… Haring spoke fearlessly of social justice… individual freedom… changing the world… 

The man with the indefatigable courage… painted his thoughts on canvas with huge bold… sometimes aggressive brushes… paints… lines… almost shrieking in their ferocity against racism… capitalism… violence… and mostly of injustice.

His particular anger was directed at apartheid in South Africa… the threat of Nuclear war… destruction of the environment… and homophobia… (diagnosed with HIV in 1988 he established a charitable foundation dedicated to helping those afflicted with AIDS).

His socio-political obsession was evident in every stroke he painted… on every canvas…

Emerging dazed from the exhibition… I was confronted by an American lady… who erupted into a description of her fellow New-Yorker by saying…

“Isn’t it amazing that Keith Haring was a street artist in New York… now his works are displayed and exhibited in prestigious museums…”

“Do you feel… we in Paris are exaggerating his importance?”… I asked…

“Yeah…” she answered in her heavy American slang… “He’s great… but Keith Haring started out as just a street artist…”

That may be… so…

I am not massively “in love”… with all his works…

But…

Keith Haring…

Left… an indelible…

Powerful…

Thought provoking impression… on me…

That… was…

Deeply… moving…

Disturbingly…

Profound…

a.