Michael and I made a rare appearance in the (718) over the weekend, schlepping out to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Keith Haring exhibit.
While I'm hardly a Haringphile, it is a fun show -- the largest-scale exhibition to date focusing on his work between 1978 and 1982, although I did see a Christmas chalk drawing that said "Still Alive in '85" mixed in, which looked suspiciously like the cover art of the Special Olympics benefit album "A Very Special Christmas."
In addition to a dozen paintings and large felt-tip pen drawings, there are some 300 archival objects, including rarely seen sketchbooks, Polaroids, journals, exhibition flyers, posters, subway drawings and documentary photographs.
By far my favorite part of the exhibition is the room with a slide show of photographs of chalk subway drawings in their natural habitat. With Blondie's "Love at the Pier," the Waitresses' "I Know What Boys Like," Devo's "Come Back, Jonee," Human Sexual Response's "Jackie Onassis" and the impossibly rare "Little GTO" (also Blondie) blaring -- playlist supplied by DJ Scott Ewalt, my future BFF -- it's like being transported back in time seeing Haring's work on the walls of subway stations around the city surrounded by the people and the advertisements of the 1980s -- lots of mustaches, skinny ties and turkey-roasting paraphernalia
My other favorite part, of course, are the cut-and-paste New York Post headlines, featuring this classic (above), plus “Reagan Slain by Hero Cop” and “Pope Killed for Freed Hostage.” When you exit through the gift shop, you'll find yourself in a pop-up Pop Shop, which pays homage to the Soho retail store that sold Haring merchandise until 2005. Even if you're not a huge fan, the show is definitely worth a look. You'll see Haring's work in lots of artists today -- from Banksy to Scooter LaForge -- but more importantly, you'll probably leave with a smile on your face.
3 comments:
I wish we would've known you guys were going to this... We've been talking about making a trip to the old 'hood to check it out. And there's a fantastic lesbian-owned brunch spot nearby called Cheryl's... She puts arugula on her omelettes and Chantilly cream on the pancakes. YUM!
PS -- I don't like this whole captcha thing I have to deal with in order to post this comment... Just saying!
Saw this show in San Francisco a few years back. I understand my original inflatable baby, bought at the original Pop Shop in the mid 1980s, is now worth at least a few hundred on E-Bay. I suppose James Franco will play Keith in the movie version of his life...
Tom W.
Glad you finally made it out to see the exhibit. I never did have an opportunity to give you my review. I enjoyed it as well. It was interesting to see his development... and how much time he spend developing his art and craft. So many studies and drafts of things. I guess I always thought he was just a graffiti artist and was very organic. It was nice to know that a lot of thought went in to what he did. I was also surprised by the gift shop. Who is capitalizing on his artwork?! So many products with his pictures. It's crazy! Hopefully his foundation is taking home the lion's share of the profits and it's just going to cracked out friends and family. ;)
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