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Incredimail
Stationery one of my favorite pop artists -
bright, bold I received a lovely letter from
a fellow new yorker who Please be patient while all of the neat images load..
Custom Stationery available please report broken links The Franklin Mint
you can purchase a lot of posters used
in my graphics here there might be duplicate images on different pages/categories
Incredimail Pop Gallery - Stanko A note from a Keith Haring fan
I grew up in New York City. I remember when the
late Keith Haring was a young, gay, guerilla grafitti artist in the
New York City Subway System. His art was so well-loved by
virtually everyone, that gang grafitti didn't get spray-painted over
it. I saw him once, doing a huge mural in chalks on the wall of
the 23rd Street Uptown IRT station. He was being observed by
about 30 passers-by, and six Transit Police.
It got so Haring's art, though not his name, was the
most enjoyable thing about entering a subway station... er... okay,
the ONLY enjoyable thing. But it made the trips HAPPY. He
did happy, joyful murals of six by eight feet and more. He
became something of a legend. 'The grafitti-artist who does the
crawling babies', was how he was described on the local news,
because at that time, in the late '70s, nobody knew his name.
People arrived early and didn't catch the first train, but rather
walked up and down the tracks, to see whether there was a new Haring
artwork up.
Yes, the City did paint over Haring's murals, as they
painted over all grafitti, until public insistence made them leave the
murals up. Gang grafitti is offensive, most of the time.
The black and white, cartoon simplicity of Haring's early subway
graffiti art was a delight to the eyes of New Yorkers all
over the City.
The Metropolitan Transit Police got into the habit of
waiting until Haring finished before arresting him (they had to,
he was defacing City-owned property). Public outcry and support
ensured he never was punished for his art, just arrested, as
obligatory, and let go to do something to make another dark and gloomy
subway station cause hardened N'Yawkas to smile.
It's lovely to have some of Keith Haring's art to use
as stationery. I was never a pop art fan, but when
literally hundreds of millions of New Yorkers had their days
brightened, every day, by someone's choice to do joyous grafitti art,
I was won over. I was not a happy child or adolescent, and
taking the train to school in the '70s did wonderful things to improve
my mood, because Haring started giving his gifts to the City of New
York for free.
Keith Haring's death to AIDS was a loss to the art
world, to the gay/lesbian/bi/tg civil rights movement, and to all of
us who ever spotted his artworks, done in chalk, and later in
white paint, which made the New York City Subway System a
place in which to smile.
Thank you for sharing this with all of us who use
Incredimail. You're welcome to use the text of this email
anywhere if you see fit. Seeing Keith Haring's art always brings
tears to my eyes.
Sincerely,
Kassandra York, for LeKZ
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