Our students love the electric work of Keith Haring (1958-1990), and now you can see a fantastic exhibition of his early work at the Brooklyn Museum, Keith Haring:1978-1982.
Haring was a fixture in the New York City downtown arts community in the late 1970s and 1980s with friends Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Scharf. He began making his famous “subway drawings” in 1980 when he realized that he could use white chalk on the black backgrounds of unused advertising space in subways. These works demonstrate his fixation with the primacy of the line and allowed his art to be seen by a large number of people. He achieved international fame during the 1980s, and he continued to make public art throughout his career. The exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum contains 155 works on paper, experimental videos, and over 150 archival objects including sketchbooks, journals, and subway flyers. Kids will be motivated to go home and create Haring-inspired line-centric art!
Want more Keith Haring? The Keith Haring Foundation is posting Haring’s journal entries onto Tumblr, one page per day throughout the exhibition. Take a look inside the mind of the artist at: http://keithharing.tumblr.com/
Want to see even more of Haring’s art? Visit Pace Prints for Keith Haring: The Blueprint Drawings through June 2nd! An 80-foot long scroll wraps around the gallery containing a unique proof of the 1990’s silkscreen edition, The Blueprint Drawings. It contains all 17 images from the series and is a really fun sight to see! It comes from the artist’s personal collection and is on view for the first time.
For more information on these family-friendly Keith Haring exhibitions:
Keith Haring: 1978-1982 through July 8th
Brooklyn Museum – 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/keith_haring/
Keith Haring: The Blueprint Drawings through June 2nd
Pace Prints – 521 West 26th Street
http://www.paceprints.com/exhibition/2012-03-HaringBlueprint