Denis Maksimov is a critic, curator, consultant and educator of art and politics.
POLIAESTHETICA CONTEMPORARY ART, POLITICS & CULTURE KEITH HARING AT BOZAR // until 19 April open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am - 6 pm, Thursdays until 9 pm @ Rue Ravensteinstraat 23, 1000 Brussels €18 admission; €16 concession Keith Haring is someone who doesn’t need an introduction for his visual works of art. He created a visual street language which evolved into popular culture, creating a lasting impact that seems to only grow over time. This major retrospective of Haring’s career – prolific but unfortunately short – is paying tribute to him as a global cultural phenomenon. Starting to draw in New York City in his early 20s, Haring brought graffiti to subway walls, which were full of political and poetic messages. Initially perceived as vandalism, his work later appeared in other public spaces (outdoor walls, billboards, etc.) and disappeared faster than they emerged, with art bounty hunters stealing them to resell later. The iconic motifs of his painting and graffiti could be compared to the indigenous alphabets of Americas and Mesopotamia: the barking dogs, flying saucers, little human figures and babies form compositions that invite the viewer to “read” the deciphered message which the artist had embodied there. He drew aesthetic
inspiration from abstract impressionist painters, calligraphy and fellow graffiti artists in New York. Unlike the ancient languages inscriptions possessed by the archaeological museums and woven into the historical narrative, Haring played an alternative role: to disrupt, to call for shifting attention from the expected and anticipated towards the urgent and new. Beyond that, it was also highly political. The artist, openly gay, had been a prolific figure in the struggle for LGBT rights. His largest artistic campaigns addressed the issues of the nuclear disarmament and the AIDS epidemic, which unfortunately cut his own life short. Art is politics: Haring’s oeuvre proves it better than any theoretical tract. This exhibition features numerous examples of his works that can be compared to the décor of the walls of ancient Babylon and Tenochtitlan.
THE BRUSSELS TIMES MAGAZINE
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