Keith Haring’s artistic practice was synonymous with New York and America’s East Coast, but the Pennsylvania-born artist was also highly active in San Francisco, and works such as his untitled sculpture of three instantly-identifiable dancing figures from 1989, just a year before his premature death, have become part of the urban landscape. But it has been more than two decades since the West Coast has held a major solo exhibition of his work. Time to put that right, and the de Young Museum is doing just that, with the help of private collectors and a substantial loan from the Keith Haring Foundation.
Known artistically for his signature figures throwing shapes and for his tireless campaigning aimed at halting the AIDS epidemic, Haring also turned his attention to other pressing issues of social concern. Keith Haring: The Political Line brings more than 130 of those works back into the spotlight, including his call-to-action on racial segregation in Apartheid-era South Africa, commentary on nuclear weapons and the environment, and criticism of capitalist excess. The exhibition is running now at the San Francisco venue and will continue until 16 February 2015.
Keith Haring (1958–1990)
Reagan: Ready to Kill, 1980
Newspaper fragments and tape on paper (from a series of 8),
each 8 1/2 x 11 in. (21.6 x 27.9 cm)
Collection of the Keith Haring Foundation
© 2014, Keith Haring Foundation
Keith Haring (1958–1990)
Untitled, October 1982
Enamel and Day-Glo paint on metal,
90 1/2 x 72 3/8 in. (229.8 x 183.8 cm)
Collection of the Keith Haring Foundation
© 2014, Keith Haring Foundation
Keith Haring (1958 -1900)
“Crack is Wack” Mural, 120th St. and FDR Drive,
New York, October 6, 1986.
Polaroid. Collection of the Keith Haring Foundation.
Keith Haring (1958–1990)
Untitled, 1980
Ink on posterboard, 471/4 x 711/2 in.
(119.9 x 181.6 cm)
Collection of Jose Martos
© 2014, Keith Haring Foundation
Keith Haring (1958–1990)
Andy Mouse, 1985
Acrylic and oil on canvas, 60 x 60 in.
(152.4 x 152.4 cm)
Private collection
© 2014, Keith Haring Foundation
Keith Haring (1958–1990)
Untitled, 1988
Acrylic on canvas, 120 in. diam. (304.8 cm diam.)
Collection of the Keith Haring Foundation
© 2014, Keith Haring Foundation
Keith Haring (1958–1990)
Untitled, 1982
Baked enamel on steel, 43 x 43 in. (109.2 x 109.2 cm)
The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection, Los Angeles
© 2014, Keith Haring Foundation
