Any 21st-century retrospective would struggle to capture the true daring of Keith Haring… His work loses oomph when removed from its original time
Keith Haring
Tate Liverpool Until November 10
Some artists don’t benefit from having their work shown in a big museum retrospective, and Keith Haring is one of them.
First, because his edgiest art was site-specific, created before he was famous, on the streets and subways of New York – a world away from the neat and clean galleries of Tate Liverpool.
A second reason is that retrospectives tend to follow the twists and turns of a long career. Tragically, Haring died from an Aids-related illness, aged 31 – and there just wasn’t time for twists and turns.
An exhibition of 100 of his works side by side can look samey.
Ignorance = Fear, (1989) is a piece of art about Aids – an illness Keith Haring was affected by – that displays three figures covering their eyes, ears and mouth
Having said all that, Haring was an interesting figure who created a trademark visual language: featuring vivacious, squiggly figures with thick, black outlines. He cited ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs as an influence – yet Haring’s friends and associates were entirely cutting-edge.
In 1983 he helped design a fashion collection for Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren; a year later Madonna performed Like A Virgin at his birthday party.
Barking dogs, crawling babies and flying saucers recur in Haring’s art; there is a sense of childlike innocence. The standout works of this exhibition, though, are political, using his simple style to tackle issues like nuclear disarmament and South African apartheid.
Keith Haring’s work piece Untitled (1980) features his signature figures with thick, black outlines. There is a sense of childlike innocence
Perhaps inevitably, the most powerful pieces are those to do with Aids. In Ignorance = Fear, three vulnerable figures can be seen covering their eyes, ears and mouth respectively, as if to lament the lack of public discussion about the disease.
Haring, a gay man, felt Ronald Reagan’s government had been shamefully slow in responding to the Aids crisis which, by 1987, had seen the death of 40,000 Americans.
To the credit of Tate Liverpool’s curators, they did instill some sense of authentic atmosphere through darkness and American disco music in certain galleries. However, a photo of Haring painting a stretch of the Berlin Wall is a reminder of this show’s limitations.
His work loses oomph when removed from its original time and place. Any 21st-century retrospective would struggle to capture the true daring of Haring.