Keith Haring Sculptures arrive at the Winnipeg Art Gallery
Two 900 pound Keith Haring sculptures were carefully hoisted to the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Rooftop sculpture garden last week. On display from June 5 to Septeber 29, 2013, the sculptures are part of the ongoing partnership with the National Gallery of Canada.
Keith Haring, Untitled (Figure on Baby), 1987
“Raised in the climate of the Vietnam War and Civil-Rights movement, Haring was a natural activist who used his art to bring awareness to the issues of his time such as Apartheid and the AIDS and crack-cocaine epidemics,” says Paul Butler, WAG Curator of Contemporary Art. “The 80’s were also a prosperous time that fueled an unprecedented art market boom. The media embraced Haring and Warhol, making them household names. When Haring opened his own store called Pop Shop, he was criticized for ‘selling out’. He defended his embrace of commercialism by stating that Pop Shop was simply another platform with which to bypass the art world establishment, making his work more accessible to a larger audience. Those same critics would be silenced once they discovered that Haring donated proceeds from Pop Shop to the AIDS cause.”
For more information, visit wag.ca.
_Border Crossings_ Issue No. 65 included an article on Keith Haring by Tony Luppino. _
