The late Keith Haring’s artworks are the main draw at The Broad museum right now. Wandering through the galleries, I realized that many of the works Haring created in his short career contained erotic images I wouldn’t be able to show online. (I’d already had one nasty note from Google informing me that a photo of a small Oaxacan wood sculpture of a mermaid, naked from the waist up, was a prohibited sexual content image. What??!! I don’t want to risk getting threatened by Google again.)
For that reason, in this post are photos of some non-erotic works of a young gay artist who was painting back in the 1980s before and during the beginning of the AIDS crisis. He began his career by painting icons on the walls of New York subways. The images were simple, he said, so everyone could understand them.
Jewelry for Madonna and Grace Jones
But he wasn’t averse to making the most of his celebrity contacts, like this magenta-pink leather suit he and graffiti artist LA II (Angel Ortiz) made for Madonna who sang at a 1984 party he hosted. Grace Jones was the recipient of the Snake Totem created jointly with jewelry designer David Spada.
Haring idolized Andy Warhol and in these two works played off the idea that Warhol was maybe a greedy Disney character? Or maybe not. I notice he did not include Micky Mouse’s characteristic 4 finger gloves. This mouse’s hands are hidden.
He also created artworks with political messages, including these 4 about apartheid in South Africa and posters during the AIDs epidemic that you can see in this slide show.
Haring’s works fit right in with The Broad’s permanent collection as well as previous exhibitions. The late Eli Broad seemed to really like the artwork of the 1980s and 1990s. I do, too. And in my next post, will be reviewing The Cheech, out in Riverside, also filled with art from the 80s and 90s and beyond.
Basquiat painted in the same era
Here are images painted by Jean-Michel Basquiat in the permanent collection. Like Haring he was a very talented gay artist who died too young.
And Jeff Koons. Who can ever forget Michael Jackson and the chimp, Bubbles? Eli Broad, of course, collected other works by Koons including the bizarre image of Buster Keaton on a horse/pony and a huge wall of green faces. I don’t know what that is all about!
And because this is now the TikTok era, there were two young men in front of a Roy Lichtenstein painting. One was posing; one taking the photo. I was not sure if they were promoting a line of clothing based on the T-shirt or if it was just random TikTok stuff.
And finally….one of my favorite artists, Kara Walker. Like Jeff Koons, she is still working and producing her silhouette art, among other activities..
The Keith Haring Show runs through October 8, 2023 at The Broad. To read an entire post about the Haring exhibition with many more images go here.
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