New Zealand street artist Owen Dippie, the incredible mind behind the Renaissance Mutant Ninja Turtles mural, recently created “The Radiant Madonna“, a giant mural that features the Virgin Mary cradling a distinctive Keith Haring figure on the side of a Brooklyn building. Dippie explained the concept behind the mural, which was done in cooperation with the Bushwick Collective, “If art is a religion then Keith Haring is a god”.
Famed artist Keith Haring died 25 years ago today. And this just happened in Australia:
Vandals have desecrated a heritage-protected mural in Melbourne’s north. Australia’s only surviving mural by world-renowned artist Keith Haring has been seemingly untouched for more than 30 years. But on Saturday, Collingwood locals found it covered in black graffiti, the name “Keith Renks” scribbled along with a love heart. Haring, an American artist and social activist known for his political work the world over, died in 1990 after contracting AIDS. During a fleeting visit to Melbourne in 1984, he painted the mural on the wall of the then Collingwood Technical College — it’s one of just 31 known murals by Haring worldwide. The mural was added to the Victorian Heritage Register in 2004. Just 18 months ago, it was unveiled to the public after being restored to its former glory by Arts Victoria.
The above print hangs in the NYC LGBT Community Center where you'll also find Haring's famed Once Upon A Time mural in one of the restrooms. In the clip below, watch Haring create a towering 30-foot dress for Grace Jones.
Keith Haring: 1978–1982 is the first large-scale exhibition to explore the early career of one of the best-known American artists of the twentieth century. Tracing the development of Haring’s extraordinary visual vocabulary, the exhibition includes 155 works on paper, numerous experimental videos, and over 150 archival objects, including rarely seen sketchbooks, journals, exhibition flyers, posters, subway drawings, and documentary photographs.
Keith Haring's 1986 handball court mural can be viewed from the eastbound lanes of Harlem River Drive, which is where I grabbed this shot from as we crawled along in Sunday traffic. The mural's popularity prompted the city to rename its location the Crack Is Wack Playground.
