The art of the 1980s was a simple, colorful, yet controversial time for most artists. It was often simplistic and easy to produce for most of the art was repetitive and at a glance plain. Critiques questioned the definition of art and what defines art since art started to become a bit more abstract and restrained from imitating life. For example, a very controversial artist from the 1980s, Andy Warhol was often looked down upon by others seeing that his pop art included much repetition of the same photograph with slight differences such as words or color. Keith Haring, friends with Andy Warhol, was another popular artist during the 1980s who was neglected for his work. His art was simplistic in nature due to its use of stick figure-like objects,
…show more content…
His drawings had little to do with classical, post-Renaissance drawings which tried to imitate life or appear lifelike, so he preferred to use his lines in a way that would create or reinvent life much like Aztec, Egyptian, or Aboriginal drawings and used colors in a way that comic books would use colors (“No Boundaries.”) Haring did not only use lines to create life, but to also create a sense of movement. In his untitled drawing from 1987, the audience can conclude that the two human-like figures must be discussing love. By his use of lines, it appears that the figure on the right must be giving a pep talk to the one on the left, maybe encouraging him to give an attempt at love. Keith Haring used every part of his image to convey some type of feeling or message across to his audience. As his art became more colorful, the public started to question his choices in color and wondered why he used them the way he did. In an interview with Sylvie Courderc (1985), he was asked why his paintings became more colorful lately, and he replied “I have been using color since I was a kid; but for a while there was a misconception that I did not use color because what I did in the subway was basically chalk on black paper… I began to make connections with the red always being the color representing power. If I were asked to use three colors it would be black, white and red, for …show more content…
“Art magazines regularly ran short reviews of his gallery exhibitions, editors and art critiques rarely understood that much of the artist’s major work took place publicly in other more accessible venues all over the world” (Anderson.) Haring was often viewed as a graffiti artist by his peers and did not gain the respect he should have had until after his death. Because most of his major work was accessible by the public, he was categorized as a graffiti artist although most of his work happened to not be permanent or they were public projects used to spread awareness. His youth and hip-hop style made his peers turn the other cheek since they were not used to such creativity and differences in style and technique. Later in Haring’s career, he started to experiment with other techniques such as etching and lithography to expand his
His drawings had little to do with classical, post-Renaissance drawings which tried to imitate life or appear lifelike, so he preferred to use his lines in a way that would create or reinvent life much like Aztec, Egyptian, or Aboriginal drawings and used colors in a way that comic books would use colors (“No Boundaries.”) Haring did not only use lines to create life, but to also create a sense of movement. In his untitled drawing from 1987, the audience can conclude that the two human-like figures must be discussing love. By his use of lines, it appears that the figure on the right must be giving a pep talk to the one on the left, maybe encouraging him to give an attempt at love. Keith Haring used every part of his image to convey some type of feeling or message across to his audience. As his art became more colorful, the public started to question his choices in color and wondered why he used them the way he did. In an interview with Sylvie Courderc (1985), he was asked why his paintings became more colorful lately, and he replied “I have been using color since I was a kid; but for a while there was a misconception that I did not use color because what I did in the subway was basically chalk on black paper… I began to make connections with the red always being the color representing power. If I were asked to use three colors it would be black, white and red, for …show more content…
“Art magazines regularly ran short reviews of his gallery exhibitions, editors and art critiques rarely understood that much of the artist’s major work took place publicly in other more accessible venues all over the world” (Anderson.) Haring was often viewed as a graffiti artist by his peers and did not gain the respect he should have had until after his death. Because most of his major work was accessible by the public, he was categorized as a graffiti artist although most of his work happened to not be permanent or they were public projects used to spread awareness. His youth and hip-hop style made his peers turn the other cheek since they were not used to such creativity and differences in style and technique. Later in Haring’s career, he started to experiment with other techniques such as etching and lithography to expand his