Zonder titel [Untitled]
1987
Film, 330 x 645 cm.
Materials: acrylic
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp, 121 Art Gallery (Inv. no. S0014).
Keith Haring not only triggered the revival of the New York art scene in the early eighties as a twenty-year-old street artist, but also almost single-handedly accomplished the canonization of graffiti into a legitimate artistic practice. In 1987 Haring held an exhibition in Gallery 121 in Antwerp and was invited to paint a wall mural in the M HKAFE. As a mix between art and street culture, the imagery of street culture is fused with century-old painting themes and symbols (the horse, the dog, Medusa) in a part of the museum that is not designed as a gallery but as a meeting point. An important inspiration for Haring while creating the mural was the work of Tanzania-born artist George Lilanga. This contribution is one of Haring’s few public European projects that have so resolutely survived the test of time.
