From September 16th, 2023 to February 4th, 2024, Keith Haring returns to Italy.
After four stops in the U.S., at the Villa Reale in Monza and in Israel, the exhibition Keith Haring. Radiant Vision returns to Italy, to Parma, hosted by Palazzo Tarasconi from September 16th, 2023 to February 4th, 2024.
The exhibition project is intended to be a tribute to the artist: more than 100 works on display from a private collection, with lithographs, silkscreens, drawings on paper and posters, including subway and street art drawings, exhibitions in some of New York’s most famous galleries, the Pop Shop and his commercial work.
The exhibition itinerary features nine sections: from the “ICONOGRAPHY“, in which he recounts how Haring became passionate about the study of symbols, his beginnings and life in New York City, where Haring moved in 1978 to study at the School of Visual Arts, to the section devoted to “SOCIAL JUSTICE“, where with works such as “Untitled (Apartheid)“, a two-panel painting depicting a large black figure struggling to free himself from the noose of the white oppressor.
One section is devoted to the work done with young people: showcasing the Kalish Suite, a group of 11 etchings representing the joint effort of Haring and Sean Kalish, an elementary school child who attended the Pop Shop and showed an early talent for dynamic, linear drawings similar to Haring’s; and then again Medusa Head, the largest print ever made by Haring, more than two meters long and almost five meters high, created in collaboration with the Danish printer Borch Jensen The work is a modern retelling of the Greek tale of Medusa, a winged woman whose hair was composed of snakes that could turn bystanders into stone. For Haring, who had witnessed the deadly effects of AIDS in 1986 but had not yet been diagnosed, the mythical monster was an appropriate symbol of the terrifying disease that killed his healthy young friends in the blink of an eye.
While working a variety of different mediums-including paintings, prints, posters, drawings, sculpture and street art-Haring’s style is instantly recognizable. Bold lines, pictographic symbols and bright colors abound in each of his works.
Visitors and lovers of the artist will immediately recognize the iconic “Radiant Babies,” powerful example images of how Haring fought for change using art as a platform for his activism, as an advocate for nuclear de-escalation, civil rights, child welfare and AIDS awareness.
The exhibition Keith Haring. Radiant Vision is a traveling project made possible by Pan Art Connections. The exhibition is produced by General Service and Security and GCR, with Artistic and Production Direction entrusted to WeAreBeside. Among the sponsoring organizations Anlaids, the first Italian association founded in 1985 that works to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Ph: LaltroSCATTO – Patrizia Scolletta
