Keith Haring: Die illustrierte Geschichte

by Paolo Parisi

Die erste illustrierte Biografie über Pop-Art-Legende Keith Haring im pulsierenden New York der 1980er Jahre

»Kunst sollte etwas sein, das die Seele befreit, die Fantasie anregt und die Menschen ermutigt, weiter zu gehen.« (Keith Haring)
Reduziert auf die drei Farben Blau, Magenta und Gelb illustriert diese Biografie das Leben und Wirken Keith Harings als Junge in der Provinz, aufstrebender Künstler und Aktivist gegen AIDS. Haring lebte und arbeitete im New York City der 1980er, als die Stadt eine der höchsten Kriminalitätsraten der Welt aufwies. Gleichzeitig etablierte sich der Big Apple als Hauptstadt der kulturellen Erneuerung und empfing begeistert neue künstlerische Richtungen: von Andy Warhol bis Julian Schnabel, Graffiti, CBGBs Punk, unabhängiges Kino, unzählige Zeitschriften, Fanzines und Galerien für zeitgenössische Kunst. In diesem Umfeld fand Haring in seinen Künstlerkollegen Jean-Michael Basquiat und Andy Warhol sowie den Sängerinnen Grace Jones und Madonna schnell Freunde.

Außerdem entwickelte Haring im Schmelztiegel New Yorks seinen eigenen Kunststil: Angefangen mit spontanen Kreidezeichnungen in den Gängen der U-Bahn, über Arbeiten auf Papier, Kunststoff, Metall und Fundstücken zu riesigen, farbenfrohen Wandbildern und Auftragsarbeiten in aller Welt. Seine plakative Bildsprache nutzte er auch um mit ikonischen Bildern wie »Safe Sex« und »Stop AIDS« über die Krankheit aufzuklären und sich politisch zu engagieren.

Ausgehend von offiziellen Quellen, wie Keith Harings Tagebüchern, zeichnet diese illustrierte Biografie die wichtigsten Momente in dessen Leben und Karriere nach. Von seinem Traum, nach Paris zu gehen, »um Künstler zu werden«, bis zu seinem tragischen und frühen Tod im Alter von 31 Jahren hinterließ Haring eine bleibende Botschaft an den Wänden der Hauptstädte der Welt: Kunst ist eine Sprache für alle.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Art, Biography, Comics, LGBT

128 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 2021

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another of those graphic biographies that assumes the reader already has knowledge of the subject and skitters through his life hitting high points that are largely left out of context. I was unfamiliar with Keith Haring's name and work going into this and feel I now know barely a little more than if I just read a Wikipedia entry.

Which raises, the next point: If you are doing a biography of an artist and cannot secure rights to actually show his artwork, it may be time to consider doing a different book instead. This book is like sitting through an Elvis biopic that cuts to the next scene every time he opens his mouth to sing. I had no idea of what Haring was actually creating in the course of this book. It was only in googling his name that I saw imagery that I immediately recognized but had previously been ignorant of who had produced it. Too bad this book hadn't been able to put that together for me.

The art was a little vague and didn't always manage to capture a real person's likeness or make all the characters wholly distinguishable, but I did like the blue, yellow, and pink color scheme. It really made the pages pop.

[Jonathan Foutz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve always loved Haring’s art and was hoping for more of a narrative with this. Although it is arranged chronologically, it’s more of a series of two or three-page vignettes of random parts of Keith’s life.

One of the points of biographical accounts of famous historical figures is to see their life in further detail so as to empathize with them and come to a deeper understanding of their life and work. To arrive there one must be able to care about the people in the story, but it was impossible in this case. The author jumped from moment to moment, sometimes leaving ideas hanging in the air for the reader to just wonder about for eternity (or Google search later).

In my opinion, the author should have focused on one period of Keith’s life, not tried to write the man’s life story. Focus on just his childhood or maybe just his life after he moved to NYC. But this seemed like a fanboys weak attempt at telling Keith’s story. For example, I find it interesting that he was close with Basquiat (new info to me). He focused on that relationship a bit but I don’t care that he was hanging out with Madonna, which he mentioned on a couple pages and then left it. Why is it important to Keith’s story that he was hanging out with Madonna? Or did he write that in just because people know who she is and that makes it “cool” or something?

There were a few useless pieces like this or other ideas that just didn’t get finished. He went to Amsterdam and painted a ceiling at a museum but just the author just leaves it at Keith getting the idea for the painting and then moves on to the next page where Keith is regretting the possible dissolution of his romantic relationship but even that gets no closure and the reader is left to wonder what happened. However, with the Amsterdam ceiling, I get that maybe this book was not authorized by the Haring estate so they can’t show any images of his art.

The artist/author of this book draws very well and has a unique and consistent style, but doesn’t understand narrative.

[Love Is All Around · Rating 3 out of 5]

RECENSIONE A CURA DI SLANIF
Come per le opere di tutti i grandi artisti, quelle di Keith Haring possono piacere o non piacere, ma per chi come me è un Millenial, di sicuro si ricorderà il boom delle sue grafiche stilizzate su astucci, magliette, zaini e quaderni nel periodo della nostra adolescenza. Quando acquistai un quaderno con quei disegni, ricordo che non sapevo nemmeno chi fosse Keith Haring e, caso ha voluto, pochi giorni dopo è stato affrontato durante la lezione di Storia dell’Arte, aprendomi gli occhi.
Storia, sì, perché Keith Haring (insieme a Andy Warhol e Basquiat principalmente) hanno fatto la storia dell’arte contemporanea, soprattutto negli anni ’80/’90. Chi è minimamente appassionato sa perfettamente di cosa parlo e chi invece non lo è, anche inconsapevolmente, sono sicura abbia visto almeno una volta un’opera di uno di questi tre artisti (Marilyn Monroe colorata in quattro versioni o la lattina di zuppa Campbell vi dicono niente?). Dunque, quando ho visto che era disponibile una graphic novel che poteva raccontarmi meglio la sua vita, l’ho subito presa in prestito alla biblioteca.
Continua sul nostro blog!

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad at all. Economical, highly-colorful, functional illustration with enough narrative to give the vignettes enough weight for a condensed life story. (It doesn't hurt to know a bit of Keith Haring's life already, but if not, you can just go seek some out later.)

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graphic novel molto interessante, peccato i colori troppo accesi che mi hanno un po disturbato.

[Lou Brinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely helps to have background knowledge on Keith because these are like small snapshots into different moments of his life and career with extremely little background. But it’s a beautiful book!! Happy Pride!!!

[Ell MacAdam · Rating 4 out of 5]

brief and charming, full of references and resources for further exploration of Haring’s life and the social climate he existed in :^] supa fun read!
rip the goat

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dopo un paio di graphic novel deludenti ho deciso di ributtarmi sulle biografie a fumetti, e Parisi non delude. Al di là dell'aver raccontato bene la storia dell'artista, la scelta di usare la quadricromia mi ha reso la lettura molto piacevole.

[Koen vV · Rating 2 out of 5]

Een biografie van een belangrijke kunstenaar waarin geen ruimte is voor zijn werk? Waar alle gebeurtenissen die voor hem van belang zijn gewoon worden aangestipt en nooit worden uitgewerkt? Waar het heel belangrijk lijkt met wie hij ooit contact had, zonder dat daar veel mee gedaan wordt? Andy Warhol is gelukkig een beetje een uitzondering.

De stijl heeft nog wel iets: opgetrokken in drie felle kleuren, bijvoorbeeld. Maar zijn die representatief voor de artiest? Waarom die keuze?

Ik kan me niet van de indruk ontdoen dat de auteur te veel over zijn onderwerp weet en dat alles maar in zijn graphic novel probeert te proppen, zonder zich af te vragen wat de lezer daar allemaal mee kan. In mijn geval: veel te weinig. Jammer...

[Tabish Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of the graphic novel series on artists as it makes it a lot more accessible and you can learn the basics of an artists in one sitting - as it only takes 30 minutes or so to read it.

I've read about Francis Bacon, Bauhaus and Banksy in this series and this is my favourite one yet. Largely because of the great use of only primary colours in all the illustrations - it gives the whole book a fab stylised look.

[Mars Dorian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Badly drawn "biography" about Keith Haring's rise to fame that reads like a lightly-sketched summary with limited colors.

The drawings lack details and personality. They look like basic lines for a storyboard.
Blue, yellow, pink and black dominate the color palette.

All the pages blend together while the info-dumping prevents any connection to Keith and his friends.

Plus, you don't even see the drawings of the artist.

Reading a Wikipedia article about the icon is more fun.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned interesting things about Haring and NYC in the ‘80s but I guess they didn’t have the licence to include or show any of his art? So after his childhood it all got very fast. We could read quotes about what he was doing.. but not see any of it.

[Charles Eldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this went deeper into Keith Haring’s story. He’s an artist that I know of his visuals but very little of the man. If this book - and it’s lovely art - was doubled in size, then I feel the reader could learn enough to understand the artist.

[Jonathan Pavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting light read, makes me want to dive deeper

[Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

a memorial of many, many queer and POC artists who died during the AIDS epidemic in the 80s. jarring, borderline harsh visual language with the choice of those three tones.

[Manon Abbati · Rating 3 out of 5]

Facile à lire, accessible