October 2023

Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody

Keith Haring, 1983. Courtesy of the Keith Haring Foundation.

Sarah Loyer, curator and exhibition manager of The Broad, discusses Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody, the first comprehensive museum exhibition of the artist’s work in Los Angeles.

In his short but prolific career, Keith Haring was known for his fluid, uniform lines, intricate compositions, and repeating imagery, such as the barking dog and radiant baby. Since the 1980s, Haring’s art has garnered worldwide recognition, breaking down barriers and spreading joy while shining a bright light on complex issues, from capitalism and the proliferation of new technologies to sexuality and race.

Haring pushed boundaries, creating outside of traditional art spaces. He made chalk drawings in New York subway stations and murals all over the world, worked with youth, frequently collaborated across disciplines, and took on commercial projects. Haring’s public works were often made illicitly, and dynamic immediacy is a hallmark of his style. At the same time, Haring gained international attention from collectors, showing his art in galleries and museums.

Haring’s activism was central to his practice. He used his imagery and celebrity to protest apartheid in South Africa, raise awareness of the crack cocaine epidemic and the AIDS crisis, and support causes from nuclear disarmament to UNICEF. In February 1990, Haring died of AIDS-related complications at the age of thirty-one. In his short but prolific career, Haring produced a remarkable volume of work guided by the unflinching belief that art is essential in making a better world.

Interview by Dan Golden

I’d love to start our conversation by learning about your role as Curator and Exhibition Manager at The Broad.

I’ve worked at The Broad since 2014, a year before the building opened. It was really special to be part of the inaugural team, working toward the massive accomplishment of opening a new museum for Los Angeles. I’ve worked on lots of exhibitions since then like This Is Not America’s Flag (2022), a show of works that critically engage the US symbol by over 20 artists, and The Broad’s presentation of Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963—1983 (2019), organized by Tate Modern, London. It’s been a privilege to organize LA’s first full-scale exhibition on Keith Haring’s expansive practice.

Installation view of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody exhibition at The Broad, Los Angeles, May 27, 2023 – October 8, 2023. Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy of The Broad.

What were the origins of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody, and how did you put it all together?

I started working on the project in 2019 and visited the Keith Haring Foundation in early 2020 before everything shut down. Luckily, the foundation has extensive archives, and a lot of the material they house is digitized, so I could do a lot of research remotely. We had been thinking about doing a Haring show at The Broad for a long time—Haring is such an important artist in the collection. Our founders, Eli and Edythe Broad, acquired the first work in 1982, and they acquired all of the works in the collection by Haring during the artist’s lifetime.

My job was about editing. Haring moved to New York in 1978 at the age of twenty to attend the School of Visual Arts, and he died just over a decade later in 1990, at the age of thirty-one. In that brief time, he produced a remarkable volume of work. We have 10,000 square feet of gallery space, and I could have filled the galleries many times over with the amount of work Keith made.

Installation view of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody exhibition at The Broad, Los Angeles, May 27, 2023 – October 8, 2023. Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy of The Broad.

Did you have a particular vision for the exhibition while developing it?

Very early on, I homed in on a phrase from Keith’s journals that he wrote when he first moved to New York, “Art is for everybody,” which became the title of the show. It was a mantra for him—it wasn’t only a conceptual framework for his work but a deep responsibility he felt as an artist. He arrived in New York in the late ’70s at a time when the art world was very insular, and he and many of his peers pushed against that. Alongside his studio practice, Haring made thousands of drawings in New York subways, and he made murals all over the world in spaces like children’s hospitals and on the sides of buildings. He also opened the Pop Shop, a commercial space where he sold items featuring his imagery so it could be accessible to a wide audience, and he made himself accessible. For example, he held workshops for youth at his exhibitions. These aspects of his practice are front and center in the exhibition.

This is the first in-depth museum presentation of Haring’s work in Los Angeles, so it was important to show the full arc of his career. His work shifted over that time, from the early works in the late 1970s, where he was developing his voice and aesthetic, to his tarpaulin paintings from the early 80s to the complex compositions he made in the mid-to-late 80s.

The exhibition represents key themes and moments in the artist’s career, like his 1982 exhibition at Tony Shafrazi Gallery that put him in the spotlight of media and many collectors. His work addresses issues of the time, from the nuclear disarmament and anti-apartheid movements of the Cold War era to critiques of racism and capitalism during the Raegan era of conservatism in US politics to AIDS activism. Haring’s work takes on some of society’s foremost tyrannies while also creating a sense of joy and wonder, often accomplishing both simultaneously through his use of humor and vibrant colors, which I see as one of his greatest skills as an artist.

“This is the first in-depth museum presentation of Haring’s work in Los Angeles, so it was important to show the full arc of his career.”

Installation view of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody exhibition at The Broad, Los Angeles, May 27, 2023 – October 8, 2023. Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy of The Broad.

Keith Haring, Untitled, 1982, enamel and dayglo paint on metal, 72 x 90 x 1.5 inches. Courtesy Gian Bochsler, Switzerland

Installation view of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody exhibition at The Broad, Los Angeles, May 27, 2023 – October 8, 2023. Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy of The Broad.

Were there any specific challenges you encountered while putting together an exhibition of this scale?

Many people come to Haring’s work with a recognition of his imagery—it has saturated popular culture so much that people often recognize his work even if they don’t know his name. The opportunity is to build off that recognition of his commercial work and show how complex and diverse an oeuvre Haring created. Leaning into the complexity of his work meant confronting contradictions and trying to include nuanced interpretations of Haring’s work and the era in which he produced it.

Perhaps most of all, there is a profound tragedy in Keith’s story because he died so young. That loss is palpable. We are left to ask ourselves what he would have contributed in the decades since his passing. He would have turned 65 this year. Of course, the last gallery in the show had to center Haring’s work that addresses the AIDS crisis through painting and grassroots activism in which he applied his imagery. It was challenging to try to balance that loss and the social and political issues Haring tackled in his work with the community, collaboration, and opportunity that was also very present in Haring’s life. Keith was a staple in the nightclub scene, where he often incorporated his work and frequently collaborated with other artists, musicians, performers, and choreographers. He celebrated life and brought people together. He was an optimist.

“Haring’s work takes on some of society’s foremost tyrannies while also creating a sense of joy and wonder, often accomplishing both simultaneously through his use of humor and vibrant colors.”

Installation view of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody exhibition at The Broad, Los Angeles, May 27, 2023 – October 8, 2023. Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy of The Broad.

Did you learn anything new or surprising about Haring as you were going through the process of curating the exhibition?

This isn’t exactly new, and people who knew him or saw him paint often witnessed it, but the sureness of his line and his understanding of his body in space is one thing I think is hard to overstate and really comes across when you see the work in person. Haring never used an outline or sketches to make his compositions. Even on massively scaled projects, he intuited the size of the space in relation to himself. I interviewed artist George Condo to share a reflection for the catalog—he was very close with Keith. He told me that Keith taught him to gesso his own canvases rather than having a studio assistant do so so that he’d understand the size of the painting in relation to his body. I just love that.

Installation view of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody exhibition at The Broad, Los Angeles, May 27, 2023 – October 8, 2023. Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy of The Broad.

What are you working on next for The Broad?

I’m working on a tree planting project in public space inspired by Joseph Beuys’s last major project made for Documenta 7 in Kassel, Germany, 7000 Eichen (7000 Oaks) (1982-87). Our project is supported by the Getty’s PST Art initiative. I’m also working on an exhibition of Beuys’s work focused on ecology and environmental activism in his practice. Beuys was a founding member of the German Green Party. This aspect of his life and work is so relevant today as we continue to experience the dire effects of the climate crisis. The exhibition and public project will take place in fall of 2024.

Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody
The Broad
Los Angeles
May 27—October 8, 2023

The Broad
@thebroadmuseum

Keith Haring Foundation
@keithharingfoundation

Portrait of Sarah Loyer by Pau Pescador

Sarah Loyer is Curator and Exhibitions Manager at The Broad. Loyer has curated numerous exhibitions, including Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody (2023), the first full-scale exhibition of the artist’s work in Los Angeles, and This Is Not America’s Flag (2022), featuring the work of over twenty artists critically engaging the US symbol. She was the host curator for The Broad’s presentations of Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983 (2019), organized by Tate Modern, London, and Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors (2017), organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. In 2020, she received a Curatorial Award for Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators. Loyer has a Masters in Public Art Studies from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Media Studies and Cultural Studies from The New School.