SHARING WITH ME

It was a pleasure to see an exhibition with Laurent again. But I didn’t think it would be the second part of Keith Haring at the 104 centre. Anne had already seen it but I wasn’t too sure what to expect. Especially as I find the centre itself «triste» as it was to be a new hall for contemporary art. I had been far from impressed when Gianni and I went to see it in the opening week. 

I was still not impressed. However, not knowing quite what to expect except they were the large canvass, it would be good to see them with Laurent as he had not as yet seen the exhibition at the MAM. 
 Ajouter une légende As an opening, a sculpture stands proudly in the courtyard. You can see from the size of Laurent that it was big, very BIG. 

His work is huge.  Sometimes more than seven metres high. There were several stages and at the first look, the work is much the same as had been on show in the MAM but very much bigger. Overpowering I would say. ...

I felt like something light but there didn't seem to be much around. Keith Haring maybe "giggly stuff" for children but since seeing it, I was in living in a world of memory. Sad ones at that. You know how much I dislike these kind of reflections. When reading Beax Arts magazine on my balcony the other night (the first evening this year when it was warm enough to sit outside ,)there was an article on  an artist I knew nothing about. Mike Kelley. Apparently an important American artist of the 20th coming after Andy Warhol and pursuing other directions rather than just pop art. He took his life in December 2012, missing out on one of the biggest retrospective exhibition openings of his work, which of course he must of known about.  Only 57 and I am sure there is more to it than I have read. What I found drôle and touching at the same time was his recuperation of rag toys found disgarded in garbish dumps and un-loved, turning them into half man-half beast. (A picture in Be...

You do not go unprepared to see a retrospective of Keith Haring (1958-1990)- especially when the title is «The Political Line». The exhibition gives a real insight into his work but even more so into the profoundly political character of his approach throughout his career. Everyone knows Haring as all over the world there are artifacts, posters, badges and people wearing them. Safe Sex Sometimes when I see one, I ask myself «does the person know what that represents?» A Pop Idol and undoubtedly one of the most celebrated artists of his time with an inimitable style. He had shows with the best of them. Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roy Lichenstein or Robert Rauschenberg - artists I have talked about in different chapters over these last two years. His popularity came through the political statements he made which marked his entire career. For Keith Haring, art was however not political but his statements were ways of getting a message across to everybody. He was involved w...