“I feel in some way that I may be continuing a search,
continuing an exploration that other painters have started. I am not a
beginning. I am not an end. I am a link
in a chain.”
Milano:
Palazzo Reale – Keith Haring – About Art Exhibition.
The Keith Haring – About Art
exhibition at Palazzo Reale, until
June18 is curated by Gianni Mercurio.
The exhibition establishes a dialogue between Haring's works and his
sources of inspiration - Art History
- from the archaeology of classical antiquity, to Pre-Columbian art, archetypal
religious figures, Pacific masks and
the creative art of indigenous Americans,
right up to 20th-century masters such as Jackson
Pollock, Jean Dubuffet and Paul Klee.
Above. Keith Haring
– Untitled 1982 – Sumi ink on paper – Lupa
Capitolina – XV Century – bronze.
President of
the Keith Haring Foundation Gil Vazquez
and its executive director Julia Gruen
Demetrio Paparoni and the curator Gianni Mercurio
Keith Haring – Untitled 1981 – enamel on
Metal
Michelangelo Buonarroti - Battle Between Centaurs and Lapiths
end 19th-cenutry
– plaster cast
This
show pivots on a new critical approach: an interpretation of Haring's oeuvre is not correct if it is
not also seen in the light of Art
History, which he understood and placed at the centre of his work,
assimilating it to such a degree that he explicitly integrated it into his
paintings, so that this became the most significant element in his aesthetic
research.
Photo by
Pierre Keller
“Andy Warhol’s life and work made my work possible. Andy set the
precedent for the possibility of my art to exist.”
Keith Haring – Untitled 1985 – acrylic on canvas
Keith Haring and Andy Warhol
“Actually, this image of the man with a hole in his stomach came after I
heard of John Lennon’s assassination.
Someone came into the Mudd Club and told us that John Lennon had been
shot. People couldn’t believe it. It had this incredibly sobering effect on the
entire city. I woke up the next morning
with this image in my head-of the man with a hole in his stomach.”
Director of Palazzo Reale, Domenico Piraina
Keith Haring – Untitled 1981 – vinyl paint on vinyl tarp
Keith Haring
Untitled, 5 June 1984 – enamel on wood
Untitled, 11 June 1984 – acrylic on canvas
Roger Magoulas, Kristen Haring, Jerome de Noirmont and Gil Vazquez
Maria Mulas
Keith Haring – Untitled 1985 – oil on
canvas
Fabio Bellotti and Daniela Morera
Keith Haring – Untitled 1985 – acrylic on
canvas
Michele Chiossi
Keith Haring – Untitled 1978/1979 – Sumi ink and
acrylic on paper
It
was in those years that Haring found
the pictorial language of such artists as Jean
Dubuffett a fundamental reference for perfecting his own style. What interested him in Dubuffett were the
paintings begun in 1962 which, for over a decade, would form the Hourloupe cycle. In it the French artist, backed up the experience of having studied materials
in their phenomenal and structural relationship, turned to a composition of
signs based on a few lines and few colors: black, red and blue against a white
background. Proceeding by interlocking
images, Dubufett managed to encapsulate on the surface of a canvas the three-dimensionality
of sculpture.
Philippe Daverio, Marina Mattei and Antonella Ranaldi
Massimo Giacon
Keith Haring – Walking in the Rain 1989 – acrylic and
enamel on canvas
Etruscan Olpe – 6-century – ceramic
Christina Clausen and Gianni Mercurio
Matteo Guarnaccia
Keith Haring – Untitled 1985 – acrylic and
oil on canvas
Keith Haring
was one of the most outstanding artists in the second half of the 20th century.
His art is seen as the expression of a socially and politically committed
counterculture and deals with issues of his time and ours: drugs, racism, Aids,
the nuclear threat, youth alienation, minority discrimination and the arrogance
of power. Haring participated in a collective experience and became the icon of
the global artist-activist.
Keith Haring – Untitled 1984 – spray
enamel on sheet metal
Trajan’s Column – 113 AD
Keith Haring – Untitled 1983 – vinyl
paint on vinyl tarp
Tribal Mask
Photo by
Tseng Kwong Chi
Grace Jones and Keith Haring
Keith Haring
Mural for St. Patrick’s Daycare Center – San Fransisco – 1985
acrylic paint on wood in 24 panels
Jose Matos
Keith Haring – Via Picasso 1984 – Sumi ink
on paper
Keith Haring – Via Picasso 1984 – Sumi ink
on paper
Photo by
Tseng Kwong Chi
‘Now I live in New York City, which I believe to be the center of the
world. My contribution to the world is
my ability to draw. I will draw as much
as I can for as many people as I can.”
Keith Haring – Subway Drawing 1982-1984 circa –
chalk on paper
Pablo Picasso – Femme Nue 1907 – oil on
canvas
Keith Haring – Via Picasso 1984 – Sumi ink
on paper
Keith Haring – Red, Yellow, and Blue #7 1987 - oil and
acrylic on canvas
Keith haring – Untitled 1987 – enamel on
aluminium
Luigi Spagnol and Hanne Orstavik
Alice, Giovanna, Matteo and baby Giulio Lupo Gerevini
Luca Costa
Keith haring – The Effect of Green on Blue 1978 – felt
pen on paper
Angelo Cruciani
Keith Haring – Untitled 1989 – acrylic
and esame on canvas
Luca Speziali Fenech and Federica Nobis
Keith Haring – The Tree of Monkeys 1984 – acrylic on
canvas
Keith Haring – Untitled 1983 – acrylic
esame on incised wood
Keith Haring – Untitled 1984 – acrylic
on canvas
In
his portrayal of the figure of man and of animal-in the oft-reproduced “barking dog” –Haring represents the dualism of rationality/instinct, rendered
graphically by referring to the so-called Cynocephaly,
a mythical figure that was represented by all the Indo-European civilizations in the Classical age.
