Almost like feeling in the museum.
New York, 1980s. Probably one of the most envied times of the city. Although also dangerous. Perhaps that combination of risk and cosmopolitanism was the perfect breeding ground for unprecedented creativity and freedom. Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat They were two protagonists of that scene.
The two, separately and sometimes together, "changed the art world of the 1980s through their idiosyncratic imagery, radical ideas, and his complex socio-political comments, creating an indelible legacy that continues to influence contemporary visual art and popular culture today.” This is how they explain from the National Gallery of Victoria The exhibition Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat | Crossing Lines. Inaugurated in this museum in Melbourne four months ago, due to the closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have just opened it to everyone with a virtual tour that allows not only to contemplate the more than 200 images, but also read their posters, listen to the audio guide and watch the videos that completed the show.
Basquiat vs. Haring.
The exhibition "examines the short but prolific careers of both artists, with works created in public space, painting, sculpture, object, works on paper, photographs, original diaries."
Results of their time, the two artists They started on the streets of New York. Haring (1958-1990) made a name for himself with quick sketches of him on the city subway. And Basquiat (1960-1988) also began, at the hands of his friend, Al Diaz, decorating the streets of Soho and lower Manhattan with cryptic poems.
The two achieved success around the same time, in 1982 they shared space in joint exhibitions, they had already defined their respective unique artistic languages. They painted on any surface (even on the walls of friends' houses, like Basquiat), but always with the street as their primary reference. They also found inspiration in children's drawings and ancient art.
Haring even said of Basquiat, admiringly, that he used his “brush as a weapon”. Haring invented his own language with which he painted denunciations of the fight for civil rights, LGTBI or the anti-nuclear fight.
In the exhibition, his works appear opposite each other, complementing the history of a free, vindictive, colorful and very creative era. AND l New York that we would like to have lived, visited. Now, at least, you can do it without leaving home.
Enter the exhibition.