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Genius Simplicity. ‘Keith Haring: Radiant Vision’ At Fenimore Art Museum In Cooperstown, NY

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Childlike?

Yes.

Childish?

No.

Simple?

Yes.

Simplistic?

No.

If Keith Haring’s featureless outlined figures, “radiant baby” and symbols didn’t profoundly address the universal, if they lacked the meaning and soul and inspiration which has defined timeless art since cave drawings, his work would be relegated to the category of mere 80s nostalgia. Mr. T. Tiffany. The Pontiac Fiero.

Haring’s drawings, however, remain universal. They remain timeless. They are brilliant, in their own, unique way, and the best opportunity to see them now comes at the stately Fennimore Art Museum on the shores of bucolic Otsego Lake in charming Cooperstown, NY, a distinct contrast from the grimy, sweaty, late 1970s, early 1980s, New York City where Haring came to international prominence.

Like countless others during that period, Haring was swept up in the city’s emerging youth street culture. Graffiti, breakdancing, Hip-Hop. He broke away from the pack by spreading his playful, freehand, white chalk drawings throughout the subway system on black paper covering unused advertisement space. Working fast, over a period of years, he drew hundreds. They were seen by millions.

“Police would arrest him, but they couldn't charge him because he wasn't vandalizing anything,” Christine Rossi, Director of Exhibitions at the Fenimore Art Museum which displays “Keith Haring: Radiant Vision,” through September 6 told Forbes.com.

The city was waging a war on graffiti during this period, turning taggers into outlaws. Michael Stewart notoriously died in police custody following his arrest for writing on a subway wall.

Perhaps it was his baby face. Maybe the glasses. Painting in the subway, but not on the trains. Being white definitely helped. As did the innocence of his images. Haring never acquired the “villain” label and was soon an emerging art world darling, befriended by Andy Warhol, invited to the most fashionable clubs.

Haring, it seems, was just too nice, too outwardly innocent, his drawing too joyful to be considered threatening. Don’t be confused by this into thinking the work was pablum.

“Even when he's dealing with very difficult topics, there’s this joy of living that you feel in his work, a value for living and for other people and for dignity, so, the pieces can be difficult, but they're also uplifting in that way,” Rossi said.

Apartheid. The crack epidemic. The AIDS epidemic.

His Crack is Wack mural on a handball court along FDR Drive created in 1986 is still there. His 1985 Free South Africa lithograph with a small white figure lassoing the neck of a large black figure, then being stepped on, may be the most widely disseminated activist art image in history. Innumerable posters raising awareness about AIDS and compassion for its sufferers placed him at the forefront of that movement. He would succumb to complications related to the disease in 1990 at 31-years-old.

Civil Rights. Child welfare. Nuclear de-escalation.

“Somehow, he found a way to take the spirit of graffiti art, but also bring it around so that it was accessible to more people and incorporate often a social justice aspect to whatever he was doing that brought it to another level,” Rossi, who saw Haring’s work on the streets while living in New York during the time, said.

Accessibility was one feature of Haring’s genius.

As was his line.

All of his drawings–from a poster in the subway to a 50-foot mural–were invented on the spot without an underdrawing or preparatory sketch. In any Keith Haring artwork, there was never a plan going in. He started and allowed his mind and the line to take him where it would. Astonishing.

What did not derive from inherit genius, but rather careful study, were his symbols.

“Haring studied the topic of semiotics, how meaning is attached to shapes and symbols, and he also looked at earlier artwork in different cultures to draw from,” Rossi explains. “He looked at ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and you'll see that in his artwork–pyramids, and Anubis, the dog-headed god of the dead–and because he's tapping into this universal language, images that maybe people have seen, very simple, like pictographs–everybody speaks this language–it’s a visual language that everyone can access.”

In the gallery next to “Radiant Vision,” the Fennimore has an exhibition of Native American art from its exemplary permanent collection of indigenous work.

“We put that exhibit in there purposely to examine the different geometric patterns, the symbols, the motifs that are repeated again and again in our Native American objects that are just a sort of thing that Haring was looking at,” Rossi said.

In using these basic shapes and forms, what seems rudimentary, was actually intentionally accessible. Haring used simplicity as a tool. The genius making the complex uncomplicated.

“The wonderful thing about Haring’s work is you can read into them; he creates this universal visual language and then you bring to it what you will,” Rossi said.

Featuring more than 100 works from a private collection, “Radiant Vision” includes lithographs, silkscreens, drawings on paper, and posters, and details the full arc of Haring's short, but prolific career. The show examines different aspects of Haring’s life and career including his subway drawings and street art, gallery shows, the Pop Shop, and his commercial work.

In its entirety, the exhibition serves as a tribute to this iconic artist and his dedication to social justice and the betterment of youth worldwide. And his permanence as more than a shooting star of contemporary art, an essential to global Popular culture.

“(In) tackling subjects that are still with us today–social justice, ideas about equality, dignity, love is love–they're still with us and so I think the work is still very relevant and very powerful,” Rossi said.

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