MINNEAPOLIS— The Walker Art Center is celebrating an artist’s return to the Twin Cities.
Maybe you recognize the bright colors, or maybe it’s the unusual drawings.
“This exhibition is truly the story of a young artist, it is an artist who has had an incredible journey,” said Siri Engberg, Senior Curator and Director of Visual Arts at Walker Art Center.
That young artist does Keith Herring.
“What’s really amazing about Haring, I think, is that he had the ability to embed so many things in his art,” Engberg said.
From sculptures to paintings to crawling babies: Haring’s short but intense career spanned the 1980s.
Decades after his peak, Haring’s work can now be seen at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
“He always wanted to make sure people had access to his art and that ability to connect is very rare,” Engberg said. “He was very exuberant as a person and as an artist and you can see that in the exhibition.”
But it is not the first time that Haring’s exuberance has been felt here.
“Keith Haring was really fearless,” Engberg said.
In 1984 he did a residency at the museum. Archive images, on display today, show his artistic process.
“What I like about this footage is that it shows how incredibly confident he was,” Engberg said.
As a fierce supporter of the LGBTQ+ community during the HIV/AIDS crisis, Haring’s passion for art and activism were intertwined.
“He himself was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in ’87. His passion and his real need to convey a message only increased during that period,” Engberg said.
Sometimes that message came as a literal public service announcement, displayed at bus stops or subway cars. Other times more subtle.
“He rose to prominence very quickly and as we can see from the works in this exhibition he really had an impact on culture at large,” Engberg said.
An impact on culture and so much more.
“He was an artist who was really about joy and exuberance, and a message about art for everyone,” Engberg said. “But also an artist who had a very passionate activism and was very concerned with social and political issues. So he really did both, and his impact lives on.”
Haring died in 1990 from AIDS-related complications. He was only 31 years old.
The exhibition Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody will be on view at the Walker through Labor Day.
The Walker said it is great to present this exhibition during Pride monthand the Walker and the Haring exhibit will be present during the Twin Cities Pride Festival in Loring Park.
Beret Leone
