Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Email
“I had begun to be interested and fascinated by the graffiti I was seeing in the streets and in the subway. Graffiti were the most beautiful things I ever saw. I wanted to let people experience art without having to feel inhibited. It can be touched, felt, manipulated. It is art that is somewhat less serious, less untouchable. […] My support network is not made up of museums and curators but of real people. And that’s good because everything I’ve ever tried to do was cut through all that bullshit anyway.” — Keith Haring
Happy Birthday to the late, great icon of street art Keith Haring, who was born on May 4, 1958 (died February 16, 1990). To coincide with a 2019 exhibition at Tate Liverpool, Tate produced this lively film featuring actor Kyle Soller reading selections from Haring’s journals.
From Tate:
Artist Keith Haring was inspired by the graffiti, pop art and underground club culture of New York.
Haring was a great collaborator and worked with like-minded artists such as Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. All were interested in creating art for the many.
Haring designed record covers for RUN DMC and David Bowie, directed a music video for Grace Jones and developed a fashion line with Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. In doing so, he introduced his art and ideas to as many people as possible.
Compelled to speak for his generation, his art responds to urgent issues including political dictatorship, racism, homophobia, drug addiction, AIDS awareness, capitalism, and the environment.
The quotes in this film come from Keith Haring’s original journals (which he kept between 1971 to 1989) and from ‘Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography’ by John Gruen, 1991.
