When I was an art student, our life drawing/fine arts class was given the task of doing a research project on someone current pushing the world forward. I chose to do my project on graffiti artist Keith Haring.
There are many reasons to love the work of Haring. His tagger art, many times dismissed as vandalism, was a radical concept in 80s New York, a which often led to the debate "is it art?" Trained at the prestigious School of Visual Arts, Haring often said his illustrations were inspired by African tribal art that was bold, skeletal and active. His color palette was vibrant, joyous and pure, a splash of primaries, or stark black and white.
His work was inspired by the vibrancy of counter-culture of the 70s and 80s NYC. Haring was witness to the birth of rap and hip-hop, punk, disco and street parties. A friend of Madonna's, she recalled when they were a couple of street kids running from one house party to another.
He also deemed it his mission to make his art for the public. He got his start tagged NYC streets and subways with his simple yet striking images on his way to class at the School of Visual Arts. With a few strokes of a piece of chalk or a marker, he transformed the gritty transportation with his whimsical drawings. When he became famous and in-demand, he opened the Pop Shop, which made his work available on pins, posters, miniature sculpture, shirts and watches.
Haring was also generous with his talent. He provided artwork for many non-profit organizations, such as his iconic baby and mother for the cover of the Very Special Christmas albums. I remember getting stickers in college featuring his work for GLAAD, Amnesity International and Resist!
Haring passed away right around the time that Rolling Stone ran a feature on him and I gave my presentation. My professor, a collage artist from SVA who surely knew him, asked me the question "is it art?" to which I retorted with a bit of bold swagger "whose to say its not?"
Twenty years later, with Haring's work on view from San Francisco's MOMA to the conservative Fredrick Meijer Gardens, I am proud of my declaration to my skeptical professor that what Haring created is indeed art.
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