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Small-town Pennsylvania Boy Makes Good Art
The street was his gallery, but Keith Haring’s noble ambitions couldn’t shield him from corruption
Keith Haring in Pop Shop, 1986 (Photo: Charles Dolfi-Michels)
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Anyone around Manhattan’s vibrant ’80s art scene will surely recognize the aesthetic of Keith Haring, whose distinctive, cartoon-like style defined the street and, eventually, gallery art of the day. The Universe of Keith Haring is a biopic of a small-town Pennsylvania boy, already talented and interested in art by the age of ten, who found his calling in a cutting-edge artistic community that included Basquiat and Kenny Scharf.
Rather than vying for gallery shows inside a rarified art world, Haring stayed on the street, influenced by established graffiti artists like LA2. Haring’s pieces showed up on subways and all over downtown. With a sound track of Devo, the B-52s and Fab 5 Freddy, and an active social life at Danceteria, the Mudd Club and Club 57—not to mention New York’s infamous bath houses—Haring’s world was defined by a supercharged scene of artistic and sexual experimentation. It also quickly turned into a money-driven scene, which Haring dominated. Through recordings and footage provided by his biographer, John Gruen, as well as various experimental films that Haring starred in, The Universe of Keith Haring presents an accurate and compelling portrait of an art star that burned brighter—and faster—than most, dying of AIDS at age 31.