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THE RADICAL JOY
OF KEITH HARING
Portait of the ubiquitous artist from the 1980s
Nearly thirty years after his death, the popular and socially committed art of Keith Haring continues to
fascinate; his stylised figures and flashy colours have not dated. To mark the occasion of a major
retrospective of his work at the Tate Liverpool (on to 10 November), a journalist from The Observer takes
a look back at the all too short career of this important American artist.
THE OBSERVER MIRANDA SAWYER
T
hough he died in 1990, in many ways Keith
Haring is still alive. His art is everywhere.
There are Haring T-shirts, Haring shoes, Haring
chairs. Keith Haring’s work pops up all over the
place – his radiant baby, the barking dog, the
dancer, the three-eyed smiling face. Simple, cheer-
ful, upbeat, instantly recognisable. They make you
smile and they work like graffiti tags, small signi-
fiers that say “Keith woz here”. But Haring did
much more than provide cute cartoons. He was
publicly minded. His art faced outwards. He
wanted to inform, to start a conversation, to ques-
tion authority and convention, to represent the
oppressed. Those cute figures are political.
ACCESSIBLE LANGUAGE
- “Although his imagery is ubiquitous, he’s actu-
ally an artist that has been overlooked,” says
Darren Pih, co-curator of this month’s major Keith
Haring exhibition at Tate Liverpool. “People forget
that back in the 1980s, he was talking about so-
cially important issues: apartheid, Aids, environ-
mentalism, how capitalism increases inequality –
and he was using very accessible language.” - Sometimes that language was direct, as in his
Crack Is Wack mural (on 128th Street in New
York), or the hundreds of specially designed post-
ers he gave out at anti-nuclear and anti-apartheid - though even if, although / work oeuvre, artistic creation /
to pop up to appear (in multiple places) / radiant happy,
luminous / to bark to make a noise like a dog / cheerful
happy, joyful / upbeat positive, enthusiastic, here, optimistic
/ signifier sign, indication of / woz = was / to provide to
offer / cute sweet, adorable, charming / to be publicly
minded to be thoughtful, aware of issues concerning human
rights, welfare of people, etc. / to face here, to be turned
towards / outwards towards the exterior / figure character. - ubiquitous omnipresent / actually in fact, in reality / to
overlook to ignore, neglect, here, underestimate / exhibition
display, show / issue problem, matter / Aids = Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome / environmentalism ecology /
to increase to augment, raise. - wack (fam) bad, messed up, dumb / mural large wall
painting, fresco / to design to devise, create /
Keith Haring in his Broome Street apartment in New York, 1983. (SIPA)
(Keith Haring / Pixabay)AA 30-31-806-Isa.indd 30 27/06/2019 15:21