Keith Haring, Explicit Icon: Interview with Art Historian Paul Kisner
By: Liam Heitmann-Ryce
Tags: Gay, LGBTQ, New York, Art, Creative Non Fiction

Keith Haring, Explicit Icon: Interview with Art Historian Paul Kisner

An assessment of the artist and activist’s powerful legacy

Paul Kisner at Haring’s 1989 mural “Once Upon a Time…” in New York City [Image courtesy of Kisner]

Art is a universal language. So vigorously allergic to definition, so reluctant to be placed in a box of This or That, art is the medium which invites the broadest range of opinions. Unlike science or mathematics, art can mean whatever you think it does. While literature — and, to a lesser extent, film and TV — require translation to be rendered universally digestible, paint on a canvas can be plonked on any wall in the world and freely interpreted by anybody.

This is certainly true of the work of Keith Haring. Starting out in the near-bankrupt New York of the late 1970s, the bespectacled artist kick-started his 20s — and his bombastic career — by doodling on Subway walls and enlivening every inch of derelict buildings with frenetic graffiti. Haring’s work was always made available for public consumption. Even when his work could be found on everything from Swatch watches to anti-Apartheid posters, even when he partied with Grace Jones and shared the dancefloor with Madonna, his art would always be free to see.

If the building he had graced with a mural of breathtaking enormity and complexity were demolished, Haring’s philosophy was always rooted in tranquil pride. As he wrote in his diary in 1987, reflecting on a pro-unification work he had painted onto the Berlin Wall,

It is temporary and its permanency is unimportant. Its existence is already established. It can be made permanent by the camera.

Indeed this is how Haring is remembered today: photographically. Such was the international popularity of his work, bolstered by the artist’s immense enjoyment of fame, Haring was a well-documented public figure. But there is more to the American artist than funky DJ dogs and dancing stick people printed on t-shirts. He was also a champion of queer rights and a major force against social ills, such as drug abuse and systemic racism.

This is what the Dutch art historian Paul Kisner wants more people to remember. Based in the Hague, Kisner is a graduate student in the conservation and restoration of paintings who operates a very active Instagram account, @keith_haring_the_activist. Designed to promote a more diverse representation of the artist’s legacy outside of his commercial career, the account shares lengthy, utterly fascinating insights into the humanitarian beliefs Haring exercised through his art and on-the-ground activism.

I contacted him on Instagram and asked for an interview, as I was curious to see what had so compelled Kisner to devote himself to the life and work of an artist for whom we both shared a mutual affinity.

Haring poses before his 1986 anti-drug mural “Crack is Wack,” the history of which is brilliantly explored in one of Kisner’s Instagram posts // photograph by Tseng Kwong Chi, courtesy of the Keith Haring Foundation

The first question I asked Paul was how he discovered Keith Haring, and what stood out for him in that moment?

Growing up, “the images of Keith Haring were always there,” an indelible fixture within pop culture. “I mostly remember the heart face and dancing dogs from some place in my youth. Then in 2008 I saw Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet world tour in the Amsterdam ArenA, in which she payed tribute to Keith Haring’s art in an animated segment.”

A sensational showcase of Haring’s most famous creations, the performance sees Madonna and a troupe of backup dancers bouncing across the stage in a rendition of Into the Groove as vivacious and ecstatic as the art moving across the screens. “The joy of the animations in Madonna’s show were given much more context in a documentary by Christina Clausen called The Universe of Keith Haring,” Paul says, “which was broadcast on national TV around that time, exploring the times and themes that his art reflects on.”

I then asked Paul what he felt was so important about Haring’s work.

His greatest attraction to Keith Haring is that his art “includes so many stories and messages. But what stands out most of all is how he democratised the art world. He wanted everybody to have access to his art. His explicit and direct style of drawing lines made his art even more accessible.”

Challenging the notion that Haring ‘sold himself out’ by taking lucrative commercial deals that saw his prints on everything from shoes to button-pins, Paul is keen to point out “he achieved fame and success with very little help from the biggest institutions. For example: there are only a few modern art museums that acquired his paintings during his lifetime.”

He wasn’t driven by profit, either. Haring’s work was often made available free-of-charge, notably during the 1985 End Apartheid rally in Central Park, where he handed out copies of his “Free South Africa” posters for anybody who wanted one.

In regard to Keith Haring’s legacy and artistic output, what did he want more people to be made aware of?

Paul seemed most upset by the fact that “the general public mostly knows about the joyful images that were licensed and reprinted on merchandise for big brands like Lacoste and Zara.” This misses the point, Paul feels. “Haring’s art had so many political, sexual, and activist elements within. It’s sometimes dark, but there is also irony and humour in it. Those messages are still relevant today. When I look at environmental issues, or the Black Lives Matter Movement… he made art about that, but 35 years ago.”

The death of African-American graffiti artist Michael Stewart, aged 25 as a result of police brutality, caused such an outrage that both Haring and his most immediate contemporary Jean-Michel Basquiat devoted works to the devastating incident. “I’d wish those images were spread more,” Paul says. “It couldn’t be more relevant right now.”

“Michael Stewart — USA for Africa” (1985), property of the Keith Haring Foundation

How are you underlining the lesser-known aspects of Haring’s legacy?

It is with great enthusiasm that Paul recognises “there have been some amazing exhibitions on Keith Haring’s legacy in recent years, which do shine a light onto the diversity of his output. My absolute favourite,” he says, “was The Political Line in Paris in 2013, curated by Dieter Buchart.” Upon relocating to San Francisco, this landmark showcase was the first American exhibition to demonstrate the strength of Haring’s political views in his paintings.

Speaking for himself, Paul says, “I have recently started a new Instagram account that specifically highlights the political, sexual, religious, queer, art from Keith Haring,” which was cited at the beginning of this article. I hope the audience will see that there is so much more strength in his art than just the happy dancing dogs and the radiant baby.”

Ending on a personal note, I asked Paul what Keith Haring meant to him, specifically. Why is there such a strong affinity between him, an art historian in the Netherlands, and this NYC icon who died shortly before he was even born?

“I can’t pin down the exact reason I like his art so much. To me, Keith Haring is an inspiration on many levels.” Such was the enormity of his portfolio — a reported 10,000 pieces created in his 10-year career — Paul feels there is always something new to discover.

Specifically, he thinks that the “unapologetic queerness and activist way of speaking are what attract me the most to his legacy. He made me realise that you don’t have to hide your sexuality, and that the way you have been marginalised because of your sexuality can give insight into other people’s struggles. His story definitely opened my eyes on many levels.”

Art is, after all, the universal language. There is endless inspiration to be taken from it, and if self-actualisation is just one aspect of one artist’s legacy, then the work of Keith Haring is assuredly worth remembering and revisiting.