“Pure Art exists only on the level of instant response to pure life.” —Keith Haring, October 1978
A while back while visiting NYC I saw the Keith Haring retrospective works at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Now in this more specific exhibit of Haring at the Chelsea Skarstedt, Heaven and Hell is a series that’s dark nature displays the of course bubbly cartoon designs he is most known for, but also a subtly depicts a thematic William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell—showing the dichotomous nature of our human existence through depictions of life and death; religion and sexuality; innocence and experience; heaven and hell; good and evil.
Haring’s influences range anywhere from Dante’s Inferno all the way to his early studies of the early Cubists such as Kandinsky, and this more intensified version of Haring’s political advocacy artworks are often underrepresented replaced by his “happier” pieces. His ultimate connect with the public sphere on his AIDS and political-related activism stemming from the earliest days of graffiti on the New York City subway that revolutionized an era of American art forever celebrated in museums all over the world.
This free exhibit will run through April 18th at the Skarstedt Gallery in Chelsea (the other Uptown locationgs showing Günther Förg).
(source: Keith Haring Foundation; photo via Skarstedt)
