Radiant
The Life and Line of Keith Haring
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- £17.99
Publisher Description
SOON TO BE A TV SERIES WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ANDREW HAIGH
New York Times Book Critics Favorite Book of the Year · Washington Post Notable Book of the Year
“It’s all here: the grade school Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss; the adolescent acid trips; the fondness for Post-it notes and flying saucers; the long tails of Dubuffet and Burroughs; the encounters with Madonna, Warhol, and one game-changer of a subway Johnny Walker Red poster. Brad Gooch takes us deep into Keith Haring’s imagination while somehow managing to fix the aura and energy of the 1980s New York art scene to the page. A keen-eyed, beautifully written biography, atmospheric, exuberant, and as radiant as they come.”—Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Revolutionary: Sam Adams
A stunning life of the iconic American artist, Keith Haring, by the acclaimed biographer Brad Gooch.
In the 1980s, the subways of New York City were covered with art. In the stations, black matte sheets were pasted over outdated ads, and unsigned chalk drawings often popped up on these blank spaces. These temporary chalk drawings numbered in the thousands and became synonymous with a city as diverse as it was at war with itself, beset with poverty and crime but alive with art and creative energy. And every single one of these drawings was done by Keith Haring.
Keith Haring was one of the most emblematic artists of the 1980s, a figure described by his contemporaries as “a prophet in his life, his person, and his work.” Part of an iconic cultural crowd that included Andy Warhol, Madonna, and Basquiat, Haring broke down the barriers between high art and popular culture, creating work that was accessible for all and using it as a means to provoke and inspire radical social change. Haring died of AIDS in 1990. To this day, his influence on our culture remains incontrovertible, and his glamorous, tragically short life has a unique aura of mystery and power.
Brad Gooch, noted biographer of Flannery O’Connor and Frank O’Hara, was granted access to Haring’s extensive archive. He has written a biography that will become the authoritative work on the artist. Based on interviews with those who knew Haring best and drawing from the rich archival history, Brad Gooch sets out to capture the magic of Keith Haring: a visionary and timeless icon.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gooch (Rumi's Secret) takes a rewarding deep dive into the life of pop artist Keith Haring (1958–1990), from his small-town Pennsylvania roots to international fame. Gooch zeroes in on Haring's role in the vibrant New York City street art scene starting in the late 1970s, when he graffitied streetlamps and walls with cartoon-inspired characters and used the black paper pasted over expired subway advertisements for chalked drawings—often of crawling babies—that he sometimes created in front of crowds. Also explored are Haring's artistic relationships with Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, art critics' insinuations that his work was unserious or overly commercial (suggestions that multiplied after the 1986 opening of his Pop Shop, which sold self-branded merchandise), and his work on such causes as children's education and HIV/AIDS awareness (he was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1988). Drawing on more than 200 interviews with Haring's friends, family, and colleagues, Gooch captures the innovative, whirlwind creative spirit of the artist, who continued working and planning projects just weeks before dying from complications of HIV/AIDs at age 31. Shot through with details that bring to life the tumultuous social ferment of the era, this honors the inimitable spirit of a defining figure in the art world. Photos.
