October 23, 2008
Pop Life
If ever there were an artist who embodied the short-lived, go-go spirit of the 1980s, it was pop art icon Keith Haring. He arrived in New York City in 1978, when Andy Warhol, nightlife and art were embarking on a love affair with all things downtown and streetwise. Christina Clausen's affectionate documentary, The Universe of Keith Haring (opening in NYC tomorrow), chronicles Haring's evolution as an art world superstar. His rise coincided with the ascent of pop art as a marketable product and the emergence of a mainstream queer sensibility. Later, he was at the forefront of a generation which used art to confront the devastation of AIDS, before succumbing to it himself in 1990.
Photos and video clips bring Haring’s boundless romanticism and activism to life, and contemporaries of the artist (Yoko Ono, Junior Vasquez, Kenny Scharf) describe a sweet soul who seized the world with bold strokes and democratic zeal. But it’s Haring himself — seen festooning Grace Jones' body in day-glo for a nightclub gig, showing Brazilian schoolkids how to wield a brush and marching with ACT-UP — who best demonstrates his enduring mantra: “Art is for everyone.”
The Universe of Keith Haring will open theatrically in New York City tomorrow and in Los Angeles and Chicago on October 31.
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