REVISITING KEITH HARING

Street Art's continuing influence can be felt across the art world at the moment, perhaps partly due to the success of MOCA's "Art in the Streets" , but whatever the reason, great to see works from the likes of both Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring outside of an institution. Lucky New Yorkers.


GLADSTONE GALLERY

Keith Haring
530 West 21st Street
May 4 through July 1, 2
New York Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am-6pm

Presenting never before seen works on paper, this exhibition focuses on the evolutionary period of Haring's early drawings, which traces the development of his formal language and elaborative visual vocabulary. Created in conjunction with a series of Bill T. Jones performances held in 1982 at The Kitchen, these three monumental works on view demonstrate the striking fluidity of Haring's bold graphics and his innate mastery of the optical possibilities of form and space.

Executed in real time during Jones' dance performances—functioning as active set pieces with the sound of Haring’s brushstrokes serving as the only audio accompaniment —these works entrench the viewer in a field of interlocking geometries and spatial patterning, coalescing into an intimately constructed all-over effect. This exhibition will also present a selection of Haring's early sketchbook drawings, which capture the period when he was avidly exploring his artistic impulses and initiating the working processes through which the basic components of his practice and aesthetic sensibility would take shape.

Haring's meticulously angular pen and ink compositions and loose, gestural graphite lines exemplify the opposing forces at play that would later become the enduring tenets of his work. Fusing the multiple strains of his early drawings, Haring generated a uniquely singular graphic vision that he pursued with unwavering conviction, dedication and spirit.