When hot weather begins to build up here, there is almost nothing that sounds better than going to cooler Los Angeles to view art exhibitions, go to favorite restaurants and visit friends. So that’s what I did. The Keith Haring exhibition “Art is for Everybody” at The Broad Museum was high on my list of things to see.
A young gay artist’s provocative works
As I made my way through the show’s galleries I realized that so many images were X-rated that I’d have trouble with Google if I posted them on this blog. And that is not an exaggeration. A while ago I posted an image of an Oaxacan bare-topped mermaid wood sculpture from a show at the Tucson Museum of Art and was notified by Google that it was a prohibited image! Rather than fight Google — what about the statue of naked Venus di Milo??–I took it down. But I don’t want to risk getting another nasty email from Google.
So what you will see here are the non-x-rated works of a young gay artist who was painting back in the 1980s before and during the beginning of the AIDS crisis. It was a time of gay-liberation and a new sense of freedom for gay men followed by the horror of AIDS.
I wasn’t the only one avoiding the X-rated paintings in the Haring exhibition; the Los Angeles Times used this image, below, for their rave review of the show:
Starting a career in the subways
Haring started his career by painting images in the form of icons on the walls of New York subways. It was an interesting way to get a lot of people to see and talk about his art work. The images were simple, he said, so they could be viewed and understood by everyone.
Sculpture and large canvas paintings came later as he matured and his works began to sell. The icon imagery, however, stayed the same.
He worked with other celebrities and artists of that era. The bold pink leather suit, below, was made by Haring and graffiti artist LA II (Angel Ortiz) for Madonna who sang at a party he gave in 1984. The Snake Totem was created jointly with jewelry designer David Spada for musician Grace Jones.
Political art works
In addition to erotic art, he also made political and social commentary with his works. This one, below, seems to be a statement about Disney? Or is is a comment about his idol and mentor, Andy Warhol?
Graphic images he produced during the fight to eliminate apartheid in South Africa.
And AIDS…He made dozens of posters and flyers as the disease began to sweep through the gay and other minority communities.
He created this work entitled “Unfinished Painting” in 1989. Haring died of AIDS in February of 1990.
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