A vast array of the different
styles the American artist Keith Haring experimented with will
be on display at Milan's Palazzo Reale from February 21 until l
June 8.
The 110 works in 'Keith Haring, About Art' show the artist's
inspiration, from counterculture and political statements to
allusions to contemporary and classical art, from Italian
Renaissance and archeology to ethnography and pre-Colombian
languages. Some have never been exhibited before and many are
monumental in size.
Haring was best known for his graffiti-inspired drawings,
which he first made in subway stations and later exhibited in
museums.
The exhibition is promoted by the culture section of the
Milan town council, Giunti Arte Mostre Musei and the 24 Ore
Cultura-Gruppo 24 Ore. It also enjoys collaboration from
Madeinart and the Keith Haring Foundation.
The joint effort under curator Gianni Mercurio brings s fresh
look to the leader of the Street Art genre with its bright
colors and graffiti style.
The works are from both public and private collections in
Europe, America and Asia and were selected for their ability to
use childlike iconography to convey messages on important topics
of the time and to shed light on their relationship with the
history of art.
Inside the exhibition itself, Haring's works are set in
juxtaposition with their sources of inspiration, from classical
archaeology to pre-Colombian arts, from archetypical figures
from different religions and Pacific masks to Native American
creations and 20th century protagonists in Europe and the US.
The exhibition is based on the critical assumption that any
retrospective of Haring's art must necessarily be seen in the
light of art history. He had understood this and put it at the
center of his work itself.
The masterpieces by the American artist will at Palazzo Reale
be flanked by ones made by artists from different periods, which
Haring looked to and reinterpreted in his own unique and
unmistakable style, in a narrative synthesis of archetypes from
the classical tradition, tribal and ethnographical art, of
Gothic images or cartoons, of styles from his own epoch or from
predictions of the future through the use of computers in some
of his experiments.
In this 'dialogue' between the 'genius of Street Art' and the
cutting-edge movements of the twentieth century are references
to Jackson Pollock, Jean Dubuffet and Paul Klee as well as
models of Trajan's Column, masks from the Pacific region and
paintings from the Italian Renaissance.
Haring was one of the most important artists of the second
half of the twentieth century and his art is usually seen as an
expression of a socially and politically active counterculture
focusing on the issues of his and our time: drugs, racism, AIDS,
the nuclear threat, youth alienation, discrimination of
minorities and the arrogance of power.
Haring took part like few others in the collective
consciousness, becoming a world icon as artist and activist.
However, his work - as shown in this exhibition - was broader
and aimed to bring together artistic styles into his own unique,
personal one with a symbolism that was at the same time
universal and put humans at its center.
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