Perhaps you’ve lamented the fact that your love of Picasso won’t help you in the pursuit of living with art, but with a bit of guidance you can start to develop your taste on current art based on your preferences of “famous” art.
In this series I match major artists of the 19th or 20th century with current independent artists who share the artist’s style, subject, tone, etc. You’ll no longer have the excuse of not knowing any current, affordable artists you like!
Keith Haring is a major artist of the second half of the twentieth century who died of AIDs in 1990 at the age of 31. Haring was an iconoclast throughout his career, from the onset when he took to New York City subway walls as his “laboratory” to his unapologetic depiction of homosexuality in his art to his decision to open a retail shop in Soho selling his t-shirts and ephemera.
There are too many facets of Keith’s work to write about here so I’ve chosen a few key themes shared by Haring and what I’m referring to as the “Haring-esque” artists of today. More than any specific theme, these young artists’ fearlessness and dark humor all remind me of the late artist.
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Big themes in Haring’s work…
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1. Chaotic, overstimulating graphics
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2. Drug-addled, cartoon-like style
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3. Political, religious and pop-cultural satire
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4. Violence and oppression
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5. Explicit male sexuality
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6. Grotesque creatures and vignettes
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Current artists whose work shares these themes…
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1. Jon Burgerman
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2. Nate Williams
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3. Russ Pope
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4. Hiro Kurata
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5. Royce Bannon
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6. Michael C. Hsiung
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7. Taylor McKimens
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8. Scott Balmer
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9. Don Pablo Pedro
Previous cheat-sheets: Wassily Kandinsky, Georgia O’Keeffe, Gustav Klimt, Roy Lichtenstein
