{"id":160304,"date":"2023-06-11T17:39:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-11T17:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culture.org\/?p=160304"},"modified":"2023-06-11T17:39:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-11T17:39:32","slug":"keith-haring-the-radiant-baby-of-the-art-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culture.org\/art-and-culture\/keith-haring-the-radiant-baby-of-the-art-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Haring: The Radiant Baby of the Art World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Keith Haring, an artist who stormed onto the scene in his early 20s, is the subject of an illustrious traveling retrospective that is set to commence at The Broad Museum in Los Angeles on May 27.<\/span><\/p>\n His work, an amalgamation of hieroglyphics and coloring-book outlines, was characterized by an impressive transition from street art to gallery pieces to auction-worthy masterpieces, selling for millions.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite his untimely death due to AIDS in 1990 at the age of 31, Haring’s legend lives on, with a resonance on par with the likes of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.<\/span><\/p>\n His meteoric rise coincided with the influx of artistic aspirants into New York City, when the city was grappling with municipal bankruptcy in the 1970s.<\/span><\/p>\n Haring’s generation was heavily influenced by midcentury mass media, which included not just television, but also the burgeoning rock-and-roll music scene and comic books.<\/span><\/p>\n TV brought world-shattering events directly into suburban living rooms, transforming images into a universally shared language.<\/span><\/p>\n Much like other artists of his time, Haring also realized that 20th-century modernism had reached its peak after Conceptual Art and Minimalism, which necessitated a return to representation.<\/span><\/p>\n This saw Haring revive a more energetic and democratized form of Pop Art.<\/span><\/p>\n The exhibition “Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody” will travel from Los Angeles to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and later, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.<\/span><\/p>\n Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and raised in the predominantly white town of Kutztown, Haring displayed an early aptitude for drawing.<\/span><\/p>\n His artistic journey began under the tutelage of his father, who introduced him to cartooning.<\/span><\/p>\n Haring’s early forays into the art world were unconventional. He sold self-designed Grateful Dead and anti-Nixon T-shirts while hitchhiking across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n He briefly attended the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh before moving to New York in 1978 to study at the School of Visual Arts on a scholarship.<\/span><\/p>\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n His symbolic creations, including flying saucers, human bodies with barking dog heads, and most notably, his “radiant baby,” became instantly recognizable and played a significant role in defining his work.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>\r\n\r\n Haring\u2019s Midcentury Influences<\/b><\/h2>\n
From Small Town Beginnings to NYC Stardom<\/b><\/h2>\n