Skarstedt Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition, Keith Haring, in honor of the 50th anniversary of his birth. This exhibition will feature paintings, sculptures, drawings and artifacts that exemplify some of Haring’s best known works. In an article written by Elizabeth Sussman for Haring’s Whitney Retrospective Catalogue (1997), she insightfully proclaims Haring’s oeuvre exists in three periods. In the first, 1979 – 1983 Haring’s heavy lined animator style transforms from paper to “bold, public, large-scale painting and kitsch decoration.” During the second phase, 1984 – 88, Haring transforms his art into vibrant Pop icons, yet does not let go of his own kitschy figures. Finally, Haring’s social awareness and experience with AIDS, the disease that lead to his untimely death at the age of 31, seeps into work.
Haring’s earliest works in this exhibition are represented by two drawings from 1980. One features the “barking dog” and the other his iconic hollowed out stick figure, from which rays of sound and motion vibrate off the figures, alluding to his youthful animation influences. A Subway drawing, referred to as the Pia Zadora (1983), rounds out this early period of his work, displaying his keen eye for public art and social commentary. By 1985 Haring had experimented with many different scales, large and small, as well as public, readymade or even intentionally constructed canvases, like the tondi, one of which is also on display. Brazil (1989), the latest painting in the exhibition, displays the struggle with his imminent death by expanding beyond the borders of the canvas and ultimately leaving the bottom corner unfinished, making room for the life he had yet to experience.
Keith Haring was born in 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania and later moved to New York City in 1978. After his first exhibition in 1978, it took just six years before Harings work was hanging in Museums and multiple one man and group exhibitions. Haring is considered to be an international art icon, and accomplished what many artists wish to accomplish in a life-time, in just the twelve short years of his career. Since his death in 1990, Haring’s work has been the subject of multiple retrospectives and exhibitions such as the New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Keith Haring: A Retrospective (1997); Milan, La Triennale di Milano, The Keith Haring Show (2005) and an upcoming retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon, France.
A fully illustrated catalogue will be published in conjunction with this exhibition.
For further information, please contact +1 212 737 2060 or info@skarstedt.com
Haring’s earliest works in this exhibition are represented by two drawings from 1980. One features the “barking dog” and the other his iconic hollowed out stick figure, from which rays of sound and motion vibrate off the figures, alluding to his youthful animation influences. A Subway drawing, referred to as the Pia Zadora (1983), rounds out this early period of his work, displaying his keen eye for public art and social commentary. By 1985 Haring had experimented with many different scales, large and small, as well as public, readymade or even intentionally constructed canvases, like the tondi, one of which is also on display. Brazil (1989), the latest painting in the exhibition, displays the struggle with his imminent death by expanding beyond the borders of the canvas and ultimately leaving the bottom corner unfinished, making room for the life he had yet to experience.
Keith Haring was born in 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania and later moved to New York City in 1978. After his first exhibition in 1978, it took just six years before Harings work was hanging in Museums and multiple one man and group exhibitions. Haring is considered to be an international art icon, and accomplished what many artists wish to accomplish in a life-time, in just the twelve short years of his career. Since his death in 1990, Haring’s work has been the subject of multiple retrospectives and exhibitions such as the New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Keith Haring: A Retrospective (1997); Milan, La Triennale di Milano, The Keith Haring Show (2005) and an upcoming retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon, France.
A fully illustrated catalogue will be published in conjunction with this exhibition.
For further information, please contact +1 212 737 2060 or info@skarstedt.com