The Radiant Baby, painted by Keith Haring on his childhood bedroom wall, has been ripped from its tender, intimate and original context to become an art world commodity. Dead and gone, he doesn’t even have a say in what becomes of such a personal creation. This brutal intrusion captures the sadness of a genius cut short. If there had been no Aids, Haring would be in his early 60s now and, I suspect, an even greater, possibly very different, artist than the youthful icon we celebrate.
There is an abundant energy and intelligence to Haring’s drawings and paintings of identical gyrating human figures, pop-eyed monsters and cartoon animals that’s not only miles ahead of most street art, but has the fluidity and curiosity of an artist who would have continued to grow. It is tragic that we must freeze Haring in time, rip his baby off the wall or call his style “iconic” when it was in reality a fast-moving talent’s unfinished symphony.
In the time he had, Haring changed art. Along with his 1980s New York contemporaries Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Scharf, he turned street art from despised graffiti to powerful public imagery – although his preferred location was the subway rather than the street. Banksy has paid homage to him in a mural of a chunkily drawn Haring dog being walked through south London by a masked hooded man. Yet Haring didn’t have any macho desire to stay on the street: he painted public-spirited murals with messages like “Crack is Wack”. One of the best-preserved is at a children’s hospital in Paris.
Haring turned pop art into popular art, making images that could be enjoyed equally by children and nightclub crowds, painting on Grace Jones’s body and the Berlin Wall. He opened the Pop Shop to spread his imagery, breaking a barrier between art and commerce that has since allowed artists – including Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin and Sarah Staton – to do the same. But the flowing, spiky style that could so easily be transposed from subway walls to mugs and sweatshirts was subtle.
Haring was a modern primitivist who drew together ancient art traditions to create a new urban visual language. He was clearly influenced by the art of ancient Central and South America with its bold lines, hallucinatory creatures and ecstatic themes. He would have kept growing and changing as an artist, and it is so sad to confine him to the youthful achievement that Aids cut short. The Radiant Baby is surely Haring himself, and his glowing desire to save the world with art. He shines on.
