Early works by iconic queer artist Keith Haring—including nascent radiant baby images—will be on view in “Keith Haring: 1978-1982,” opening at the Brooklyn Museum in April 2012.
Haring, who died of AIDS in 1990 at age 31, was a fixture of the New York art world who raised graffiti to an art form and collaborated with other notable “street” artists like Basquiat, Banksy, Kenny Scharf and Shepard Fairey. Making its way from Austria’s Kunsthalle Wien museum, the exhibit will include more than 150 rarely seen sketchbooks, journals, exhibition flyers, posters, photos and subway drawings. Also on view will be dozens of works on paper and various experimental videos—including “Haring Paints Himself Into a Corner,” in which the Pennsylviana-born artist strokes to the music of Devo.
Below is the video for Grace Jones’ “Perfect,” which includes an eye-opening Haring sequence and cameos from Haring’s 1980s art-world contemporaries. (It’s also just a kick-ass song.)
