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Keith Haring Journals
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During his lifetime, Keith Haring's spontaneous, archetypal creations won both a street audience and the respect of the art establishment. Kept from his teens until his death from AIDS in 1990, these illuminating journals reveal Haring's conscious, committed drive to extend the boundaries of art. Photos & drawings throughout. Radio news feature.
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Paperback, 336 pages
Published
July 1st 1997
by Penguin Books
(first published January 1st 1996)
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This was more depressing than anything. It starts out the story of a guy who is totally committed to coming up with neat interesting artistic concepts, he starts out with his art school ideals writing in such a lovely way about how he does his work and you really watch Haring begin to grow as an artist across each page! The first part of the books is awesome.
I would recommend skipping the second half entirely though. It jumps abruptly from Harings neat musings on art and aesthetics and his curre ...more
I would recommend skipping the second half entirely though. It jumps abruptly from Harings neat musings on art and aesthetics and his curre ...more
“Touching people’s lives in a positive way is as close as I can get to an idea of religion.”
Keith Haring may have been one of the greatest minds of his time! His journals are so enlightening and fascinating. His thoughts on what art means to individuals and its place in society as well as his thoughts on the AIDS crisis as someone who knows he's going to eventually die of AIDS and his thoughts on power and corruption & how art can be transformative!
Another quote I love (about gayness and what i ...more
Keith Haring may have been one of the greatest minds of his time! His journals are so enlightening and fascinating. His thoughts on what art means to individuals and its place in society as well as his thoughts on the AIDS crisis as someone who knows he's going to eventually die of AIDS and his thoughts on power and corruption & how art can be transformative!
Another quote I love (about gayness and what i ...more
It took me over a year to read this book. It may have been due in part to the fact that I knew that Haring would inevitably die an early heart breaking death. I first found this book in Ara Güler's café in Istanbul back in 2008. I sat at the small table pouring over the journals and knew I had to order it when I got back to the states.
These journals start in 1977 when Haring is a teenager living in Pennsylvania hitch hiking and busing around the country attending Grateful Dead shows, visiting D ...more
These journals start in 1977 when Haring is a teenager living in Pennsylvania hitch hiking and busing around the country attending Grateful Dead shows, visiting D ...more
Collected journals differ from memoirs in that they may never have been intended for an external audience. I think this is extremely clear in Keith Haring's entries, some of which are hastily dashed scribbles, brief memorandums, or diatribes about individuals Haring would have never expressed in public. Yet, it is perhaps for this extremely quotidian nature of the writing that Haring's journals open me to a different understanding of the artist. Spoilers to follow.
(view spoiler) ...more
(view spoiler) ...more
Keith Haring's images are some of the earliest I remember — I can still see his drawings in my mind, animated, accompanied by the goofiest songs on Sesame Street. The more I learn about his life the more and more respect I gain for him. His pieces, like himself, are at once reserved and saturated with emotion — a king of permanent Interrobang Introspection, and his journal is perhaps all of that in a more raw form.
A journal is what it is. In some places this book leaves a little to be desired, I ...more
A journal is what it is. In some places this book leaves a little to be desired, I ...more
I neither love nor loathe Keith Haring. He was ubiquitous when I was growing up in New York. His diaries are a grab bag of ideas on art and the times, though as he grew in fame they digress into a litany of people and places. I enjoyed the book, but it was the last sentence added by the editor, which ends the volume by noting the date of his death that surprised me. I knew he had AIDS and was dead, but after spending so much time in his head the effect of losing him was deviating.
As a big fan of Haring's work I couldn't resist diving into his thoughts and introspection of his art and life in general. Actually I liked the journal for the most part, especially when he's explaining his intentions behind his paintings and shared his inspirations in a sensitive way. What a great and sensitive artist, working endlessly and making art as popular as possible for everyone !
However, as some readers have said before this review, the middle part was rather boring, only listing quick ...more
However, as some readers have said before this review, the middle part was rather boring, only listing quick ...more
Art, friends, love, work, airports, drogues and dinners.
It really feels he thought that his journal will be published one day, and there so many acute reflections and ideas about art. Discussing the work of art, purpose of it and my favourite subject - art and the viewer.
It really feels he thought that his journal will be published one day, and there so many acute reflections and ideas about art. Discussing the work of art, purpose of it and my favourite subject - art and the viewer.
It’s obvious that Keith became a very busy man in his later years, but I did enjoy reading his passionate earlier journal entries where he was completely focused and full of an insane amount of ideas.
I definitely would read it again someday and would recommend it to the biggest Haring fans.
I definitely would read it again someday and would recommend it to the biggest Haring fans.
It took me almost two years to finish Keith Haring’s journals. The writing is nothing special, very scribble like, the things he tells are common events in his life and over his ideas about art and the art market. So, why 4 stars? Well, after reading the book I really have the feeling of having met Keith for real. This is maybe because his writing is very honest, clear and direct. You don’t just meet one of the most interesting personalities of his time but also a very kind guy, who didn’t like
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Feb 08, 2014
Robin Dalla-Vicenza
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-in-2014
This was really a really interesting memoir (diary) in that it covered such a large period of time over a person's life, from when he was in University right up until his death. Not only do you learn a lot about Haring himself, but about the time period that he lived in through his political and social engagements. There is a lot in the book about the politics of art, particularly of Pop Art and how it is viewed by the rest of the art community. Towards the latter half of the book it goes into t
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Nov 29, 2014
Omar Rodriguez-Rodriguez
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fuck-yeah-art
Keith Haring's Journals give a good account of the events in his life and his reactions to the world around him. This is a close look at 1980's and the art scene of the times. His point of view on Warhol's work is enlightening as well as his point of view on "street" and "museum" art. He reviews the art (and party) scene of NYC, questions the validity of his own work, his place in history, the business of the Art world, AIDS, his mortality, his legacy, etc, etc
KH was a Peter Pan who could write ...more
KH was a Peter Pan who could write ...more
A heartbreaking work of genius. What a gifted artist and better at words then one would expect. The early parts where he's working out his artistic philosophy gives you great insight into his process and deeper understanding of where he saw his art in the spectrum of history. Then his drive to create despite his looming death is riviting and leaves you to wonder what he would have done with a full lifetime? Might he have surpassed Picasso or Warhol? I guess we must be happy he was able to create
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I love him so reading his journals was a must. Oh boy, I loved it even more than I was expecting. A must read book for art lovers in general, not just Keith Haring fans. I love his reflections on life and art and the view of NY society in 1980-90, specially in LGBT+ and AIDS awareness. The part where it ends out of nowhere and then you read he dies (no spoilers there, right?) it's chilling. Always freaks me out to read such stuff.
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I'm going to read it again.
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Apr 04, 2020
dante émile
added it
i cant possibly be objective about this i just really love keith haring
After seeing the Haring and Basquiat 'Crossing Lines' exhibition at the NGV I fell in love with Keith's art. The exhibition panels described his outlook on life and his works. But it was the letter written to Vogue after the death of Basquiat that made my heart break. I needed to learn more about Keith, so decided his own words were the place to start. Did his journals give me the insight into the artist I was hoping? Yes...and no. Journals is a curious collection beginning in 1977. It's a mix o
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Dec 28, 2020
Green Hoppy
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
penguin-classics,
non-fiction
The trouble of critically considering one's journal as a work of writing is that they could not be any other way. Keith Haring's journals lack important biographical information, do not hesitate to provide as little information concerning the figures as possible, and occasionally drone on about itineraries or business matters. But it could not be any other way.
This in mind, the purpose of reading one's journals would be to gain an intimate view of a human's life, and to relate it to life as a w ...more
This in mind, the purpose of reading one's journals would be to gain an intimate view of a human's life, and to relate it to life as a w ...more
Kind of like Anne Frank's diary is a tiny sliver of the Holocaust, this book is a tiny sliver of the AIDS epidemic.
It's hard for me to write this review because I love Keith Haring so much. I spent chunks of reading this crying. The bias is super-real. There's no way I can have anything resembling objectivity here.
These journals span Haring's art school years to his death in 1990 of AIDS. He's known for the archetypal "childlike" clean lines of his work. However, he's not a simpleton. He think ...more
It's hard for me to write this review because I love Keith Haring so much. I spent chunks of reading this crying. The bias is super-real. There's no way I can have anything resembling objectivity here.
These journals span Haring's art school years to his death in 1990 of AIDS. He's known for the archetypal "childlike" clean lines of his work. However, he's not a simpleton. He think ...more
full disclosure: i didn't read past 1988. maybe one of these days i'll swing back and do that, but even though these are published journals, it felt invasive. i do love the honesty in these pages: one night stands, his hopes for the future, his philosophical questions and confusion, his love for children and involving them in so many of his projects, the wisdom with which he writes when he first starts this as a 19-year-old. he quotes my favorite grateful dead lyric in it, it's funny how the wor
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Keith Haring has always been one of my favorite artists, so to finally read his personal journals was a great experience for me. It's surreal to read about the kind of life he lived, the impact he had on so many people, and how much art he actually created in his too-short life. I loved reading his thoughts in his own words - the way his mind worked was beautiful, and I found some of my own morals and ideas and opinions mirrored in Keith Haring's words. It's always a journey for me to read in th
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I enjoyed reading the Keith Haring Journals, I remember seeing his drawings in the subway in NYC back in the early 80s and wondering about them, then he hit the big time and everyone knew who he was. It was a great read to bring me back to my NYC days, to read about his mentoring connection with Andy Warhol and his grief at such a big loss, to the days when people were dying of AIDS, and to read his process commentary on his artwork. He lived a short intense life and was a passionate artist, tha
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I really enjoyed a lot of the entries in this book where Haring is writing about his ideas on art, life and death. It was very fascinating and inspiring to see what was going on in his mind, even as a very young artist before his rise to fame. However, nearly halfway through the book he is an internationally known artist and with that the entries are dominated with his very busy day to day life. I would only really recommend it to fans of Haring to check out as a book that you can pick up and re
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Bought a version of this book in an art bookstore for my sister but after casually skimming couple of pages had to get a kindle version for myself - this is how immersed I got into the book. Absolutely inspiring, elegant and positive approach, to life, self and relations. Contrary to the many, I did not mind sporadic entries of shows, parties and places he visited towards the end of the book, it sort of gives this feeling of the inevitable approaching and, thus, accelerating need of a documented
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Keith Haring didn't live long but he was an artistic force of nature. He could go to a gallery and paint the whole show in situ, be in three countries in a week and produce great work in different media in each of them. It's all in his journals: the developmental phase, the clarity of purpose that makes his work uniquely distinctive, a genre in itself. Like all journals it has moments where there's a lot of flow (and more celebrities than you can shake a stick at) and times when there's reflecti
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DNFd after reading 233 pages because I realized I’m not enough of a Keith Haring fan to continue the read. It doesn’t speak to the book or journals per se as he recorded a lot of his thought process and how what he read and experienced contributed to his work and life.
‘The Destruction of this planet, this solar system, by human beings would not be an end to life. It would go on without us.
We have a choice, whether we wish to continue evolution on this planet or not.
I vote “yes.”’
- Keith Harin ...more
‘The Destruction of this planet, this solar system, by human beings would not be an end to life. It would go on without us.
We have a choice, whether we wish to continue evolution on this planet or not.
I vote “yes.”’
- Keith Harin ...more
Dec 18, 2021
Andy Leavy
added it
Hard to review a set of personal journals. Especially find it weird that people complain about certain parts of his life being left out (yeah, he didn't write about them that's why. This isn't a biography)
The final pages of the book are melancholic. Keith knows of his fate and that makes it tough to read but he also speaks a lot of things that are making him hopeful and happy which is nice. The final section ends with him smiling, a fitting end.
He was an intelligent, creative and loving person. ...more
The final pages of the book are melancholic. Keith knows of his fate and that makes it tough to read but he also speaks a lot of things that are making him hopeful and happy which is nice. The final section ends with him smiling, a fitting end.
He was an intelligent, creative and loving person. ...more
a really interesting insight to the mind of keith haring. as someone who went into this book only having seen a recent exhibition of his (at the tate liverpool), it really was eye-opening. i feel closer to him as a person, and i understand the background of his designs and techniques. this book made me laugh a lot but also feel very upset – he really lived a rollercoaster of a life. one day i hope to be living my best life as he was.
Even when a diarist is aware that they may be writing for a future audience, personal diaries do not read like other books. I have kept a diary for decades, and I imagine it must make for some of the most boring reading ever produced. Not so Keith Haring’s journals. Though not a brilliant writer, he wrote with great thoughtfulness on the meaning of his art, the state of the world, his own sexuality and love-life, and AIDS.
p22: November 12, 1978 Drawing pictures in the snow is the most perfect example of my attempts to create a perfect form. Inevitably the snow is in constant change: There is no way to control its permanency or its form. Drawing in the snow is like trying to paint a picture that will record specific thoughts at a specific time. You draw fast and you are always aware that you are creating something very temporary, very auto-destructive, very instant. It goes quickly and there is not time to worry a
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