Bringing the Culture to the Masses: Keith Haring’s Art for Everyone

Chris Suzuki, Art Muse LA Lecturer

Keith Haring arrived in New York in 1978 to study art and over the subsequent ten years would become one of the most successful and impactful artists of his time. Starting as a graffiti artist in the subways he expanded to paintings, murals, protest art, club installations, and clothing seen all over the world. Haring sought to create an art that was for everyone; an art that was universally readable and spoke directly to the issues of his day, while also bringing the queer/hip hop/art culture of downtown New York to the world.

In the exhibition currently at The Broad, Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody, a chronological retrospective of the artist's work is on view. Filled with the thumping club music from the artist’s own mixtapes we see the development of his style, the way the queer club culture drove him, and how the death of a fellow artist to racialized police violence, along with the rise of AIDS sparked his political voice. He sought to be a cipher for his time and to blur the distinctions between high and low art, fine and commercial work, and to challenge America to see itself as it really was. Kieth Haring contracted AIDS himself in 1988 and died from complications related to the disease in 1990. He said he knew he would live on through his work which continues to challenge and inspire us today.