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拍品专文
“[Sculpture] has a kind of power that a painting doesn't have. You can't burn it. It would survive a nuclear blast probably. It has this permanent, real feeling that will exist much, much longer than I will ever exist, so it's a kind of immortality. All of it I guess, to a degree, is like that... All of the things that you make are a kind of quest for immortality.” (K. Haring, quoted in Flash Art, March 1984, p. 22)
Keith Haring’s Acrobats, from 1986, stands tall (at over four feet in height) as a jubilant sculpture with lively dancing acrobatic figures in structural harmony. Haring’s firm believe that “the contemporary artist has a responsibility to continue celebrating humanity” transformed the present work from a mere representation of Haring’s creative genius and technical prowess to a lasting emblem of the artist’s keen ability to introduce bright, inspiring imagery as a key voice in the fight against the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and beyond (D. Drenger, ‘Art and Life: An Interview with Keith Haring,’ in Columbia Art Review, Spring 1988, p. 63).
Dance was a large part of the 1980s New York scene, and played a large part in Keith Haring’s life and artistic production. His first encounter of combining elements of dance in his work was in 1978, when he made Video Clones, a video of Molissa Fenley, a modern dancer, where he focused solely on her foot movements. He also incorporated the theme of dance into certain early drawings and paintings, such as his 1982 work Subway Drawing (Electric Boogie Dancer). At times, Haring would use his friend Bill T. Jones, an accomplished dancer, as his reference in showing movement in his works.
Haring’s venture into sculpture came relatively late in his short but meteoric career. In 1985, prompted by the gallerist Tony Shafrazi, who suggested to him “Put your alphabet in the landscape, out there in the real world”, he produced a series of free-standing and brightly colored figures that children were encouraged to play on so that the installation had “the atmosphere of a wild playground” (T. Shafrazi, quoted in Keith Haring: Sculptures, Paintings and Works on Paper, exh., cat., Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, 2005, p. 22). Haring’s sculptures made during the 1980s also appropriate elements of dance, some portraying actual moves of the time, such as the electric slide and the spider move. The present Acrobats acts as a dynamic portrayal of two figures in exaggerated kinetic balance, further reflecting Haring’s passion for the music, dance and nightlife of his era. Haring’s roommate in the early 1980s, Kenny Scharf, once stated, “From the first moment we met, dance was very much a part of our lives. We first revolved around the B-52s. We followed them everywhere, dancing for hours. We danced space-age go-go, the jerk, [and] the pony” (K. Scharf, quoted in Keith Haring, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, 1997, p. 214). Haring has imbued within this sculpture a triumvirate of life, vigor and movement. The play between the two dimensionality and three dimensionality of the work makes the sculpture lose the stiff, static aspects of traditional sculpture, instead celebrating the interplay of vibrant colors is playful and memorable geometries. The medium was radically different from his paintings and early chalk drawings, and this translation into cut metal added a further layer of reality to his work. The fabricated sculptures, employing recognizable human forms, contain an essence of inner life–a concern with stress, repose, substance and void, balance, arrested motion and horizontal versus vertical thrust.
Acrobats carries an added meaning, one of empathy, perseverance and defiance. The AIDS epidemic had an immense effect on the New York art scene of the 1980s, with many artists either knowing someone who had the disease or having it themselves. Being an openly gay artist addressing sociopolitical issues in his work, Haring saw the fight for AIDS research and treatment as a topic close to his heart; he was diagnosed with it in 1988. This work, in many ways, can be seen as a monument with socio-political groundwork underlying its more playful visual appearance. Creating this work in his well-known simplified, childlike, cartoonish style, the present work seeks to put human faces on a disease that had taken so many, and on a sensitive topic that many of the time still feared addressing. Acrobats seems not to lament the AID epidemic; rather, it is one that celebrates Haring’s life and the passion of his New York circle. It was also important to Haring to give back to the larger art community. Many of his public works were placed in locations with many children. He created murals and sculptures in the U.S. and Europe, in such locations as the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris, the San Antonia Church in Pisa and the Carmine Street Swimming Pool in New York.
Haring’s distinct style and wider-reaching commentary made him one of the most respected artists of his time. Haring aimed to speak to his generation, he created a new language through art, and hoped that people would see his works and be inspired to act. Haring’s sculptures owe much to the graphic lines of his paintings and drawings, but also to his broad-ranging interest in public art and performance, to his plunge into hip-hop culture, and his admiration for other sculptors such as Alexander Calder. Haring admired the “simple, clear, poetic quality to which anyone can respond. Kids like him, too, because his work has spirit, comes from the spirit” (K. Haring, quoted in G. Celant (ed.), Keith Haring, New York, 1997, p. 23). Acrobats preserves that purity of line, and the spontaneous, childlike freshness united with a highly formalized sense of design, which he associated with Calder. As Haring once said: “Art should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination, and encourages people to go further” (K. Haring, quoted in J. Deitch, J. Gruen, Keith Haring, New York, 2008, p. 19).
Keith Haring’s Acrobats, from 1986, stands tall (at over four feet in height) as a jubilant sculpture with lively dancing acrobatic figures in structural harmony. Haring’s firm believe that “the contemporary artist has a responsibility to continue celebrating humanity” transformed the present work from a mere representation of Haring’s creative genius and technical prowess to a lasting emblem of the artist’s keen ability to introduce bright, inspiring imagery as a key voice in the fight against the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and beyond (D. Drenger, ‘Art and Life: An Interview with Keith Haring,’ in Columbia Art Review, Spring 1988, p. 63).
Dance was a large part of the 1980s New York scene, and played a large part in Keith Haring’s life and artistic production. His first encounter of combining elements of dance in his work was in 1978, when he made Video Clones, a video of Molissa Fenley, a modern dancer, where he focused solely on her foot movements. He also incorporated the theme of dance into certain early drawings and paintings, such as his 1982 work Subway Drawing (Electric Boogie Dancer). At times, Haring would use his friend Bill T. Jones, an accomplished dancer, as his reference in showing movement in his works.
Haring’s venture into sculpture came relatively late in his short but meteoric career. In 1985, prompted by the gallerist Tony Shafrazi, who suggested to him “Put your alphabet in the landscape, out there in the real world”, he produced a series of free-standing and brightly colored figures that children were encouraged to play on so that the installation had “the atmosphere of a wild playground” (T. Shafrazi, quoted in Keith Haring: Sculptures, Paintings and Works on Paper, exh., cat., Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, 2005, p. 22). Haring’s sculptures made during the 1980s also appropriate elements of dance, some portraying actual moves of the time, such as the electric slide and the spider move. The present Acrobats acts as a dynamic portrayal of two figures in exaggerated kinetic balance, further reflecting Haring’s passion for the music, dance and nightlife of his era. Haring’s roommate in the early 1980s, Kenny Scharf, once stated, “From the first moment we met, dance was very much a part of our lives. We first revolved around the B-52s. We followed them everywhere, dancing for hours. We danced space-age go-go, the jerk, [and] the pony” (K. Scharf, quoted in Keith Haring, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, 1997, p. 214). Haring has imbued within this sculpture a triumvirate of life, vigor and movement. The play between the two dimensionality and three dimensionality of the work makes the sculpture lose the stiff, static aspects of traditional sculpture, instead celebrating the interplay of vibrant colors is playful and memorable geometries. The medium was radically different from his paintings and early chalk drawings, and this translation into cut metal added a further layer of reality to his work. The fabricated sculptures, employing recognizable human forms, contain an essence of inner life–a concern with stress, repose, substance and void, balance, arrested motion and horizontal versus vertical thrust.
Acrobats carries an added meaning, one of empathy, perseverance and defiance. The AIDS epidemic had an immense effect on the New York art scene of the 1980s, with many artists either knowing someone who had the disease or having it themselves. Being an openly gay artist addressing sociopolitical issues in his work, Haring saw the fight for AIDS research and treatment as a topic close to his heart; he was diagnosed with it in 1988. This work, in many ways, can be seen as a monument with socio-political groundwork underlying its more playful visual appearance. Creating this work in his well-known simplified, childlike, cartoonish style, the present work seeks to put human faces on a disease that had taken so many, and on a sensitive topic that many of the time still feared addressing. Acrobats seems not to lament the AID epidemic; rather, it is one that celebrates Haring’s life and the passion of his New York circle. It was also important to Haring to give back to the larger art community. Many of his public works were placed in locations with many children. He created murals and sculptures in the U.S. and Europe, in such locations as the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris, the San Antonia Church in Pisa and the Carmine Street Swimming Pool in New York.
Haring’s distinct style and wider-reaching commentary made him one of the most respected artists of his time. Haring aimed to speak to his generation, he created a new language through art, and hoped that people would see his works and be inspired to act. Haring’s sculptures owe much to the graphic lines of his paintings and drawings, but also to his broad-ranging interest in public art and performance, to his plunge into hip-hop culture, and his admiration for other sculptors such as Alexander Calder. Haring admired the “simple, clear, poetic quality to which anyone can respond. Kids like him, too, because his work has spirit, comes from the spirit” (K. Haring, quoted in G. Celant (ed.), Keith Haring, New York, 1997, p. 23). Acrobats preserves that purity of line, and the spontaneous, childlike freshness united with a highly formalized sense of design, which he associated with Calder. As Haring once said: “Art should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination, and encourages people to go further” (K. Haring, quoted in J. Deitch, J. Gruen, Keith Haring, New York, 2008, p. 19).