Keith Haring and the Pop World: Retrospect

In this year’s exhibit “Keith Haring and the Pop World: Retrospect,” we will be reexamining the 80s Pop World that Keith created in NYC and launched globally.
In this exhibit, we will be showing Keith’s “Painted Tarpaulin (from Kochi Prefecture Museum), which he exhibited during his first solo exhibit at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in 1982. Tarpaulin is a sheet that is used to protect cargo from rain on the back of a truck, and Keith used it often as his canvas. Keith wasn’t concerned with the concept of a “canvas” and used anything around him that he found useful. When this was shown in NYC, Keith was already well known for his “subway drawings” that permeated it’s subway system. His “subway drawings” were different from the bombastic graffiti tagging style that was the main stream in the street art world. In a sense it was political art for the masses. In the Shafrazi exhibit, Keith not only exhibited drawings, sculptures and paintings, but also drew all over the walls, creating a club-like atmosphere within the gallery. In a way, he redefined the concept of a “gallery” and the gallery experience.
Also, this year we will be showing one of Keith’s masterpieces “Retrospect” for the first time from our collection. Produced in 1989, the same year Japan started a new era by the crowning of the Heisei Emperor, the Berlin Wall collapsed, and the Tiananmen Square Protests broke out. In America the Cold War was at an end and the presidency shifted from Reagan to George H. W. Bush. Unlike the debt ridden America, Japan was experiencing a great economic growth. The quality of its products were surpassing that of America’s, thanks to its superior technology. 1989 was also the end of the tumultuous 80s, the end of Keith’s creative career. This particular piece is a retrospect of Keith’s career, a uniquely pop reaffirmation of his belief. His art that he spent years depicting over and over are all infused in one masterpiece. It was a challenge for Keith to keep pushing his boundaries and try to grow as much as possible out of his box while he had time left to live. Every cell in the piece is a depiction of Keith’s life, a life of movement.