Review by Booklist Review
The canonization of Keith Haring (1958^-90)--that is, the project to install him in the canon of great American artists--continues with the publication of his journals, which he wrote to be read by others, so confident was he that he would attain artistic success. There is much that is jejune in them, most of it youthful stuff about moods, sex, and political and social concerns. But Haring was a competent writer as well as a keen student of artists' lives and writings, and he communicates his responses to what he read and saw and his own intentions and aspirations with infectious excitement. As impressive as his reactions and ambitions is the globe-trotting he chronicles, undertaken to spread his graffiti-like imagery, which both his testimony and that of Robert Farris Thompson's introduction argue is indebted as much to Dubuffet, Leger, Frank Stella, and Alechinsky, among older artists, and to the break-and electric boogie dancers of 1980s New York as to urban America's spray-can brigades. --Ray Olson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
From the age of 19 until his death from AIDS in 1990 when he was 32, artist Keith Haring kept handwritten notebooks in which he recorded thoughts on his work, his personal relationships, his homosexuality, the books he had read, other artists and his commercial success. An internationally renowned pop icon by the time he was 24, Haring presumably knew the journals would eventually be made public. As a result, some of the entries betray a youthful self-consciousness. Nevertheless, these outspoken statements provide insight into the sexuality that permeates Haring's art and reveal a great deal about his aesthetics, creative development, working methods, competitiveness with other artists, openness to new experiences, love of children, devotion to friends and determination to go on in the face of death. The entries are arranged by year, and lists of Haring's exhibitions and projects are appended. An appreciative introduction by Yale art historian Thompson sets Haring's work in context. Illustrations not seen by PW. BOMC selection. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The journals Haring kept since high school, here illustrated with previously unpublished drawings, should help to illuminate his cheery, raucous street art. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Recorded in sporadic bursts at various points in his brief career, these journals attest more to the late artist's amazing industry than to his analytical or descriptive powers. Early entries, from 1978 to 1980, show Haring the adolescent Deadhead arriving in New York and laying out an aesthetic program. Pages of word associations and sophomoric aphorisms about the role of art are of interest purely as juvenilia, but Haring discusses with remarkable self-assurance his desire to make art accessible to the general public: ``There is an audience that is being ignored, but they are not necessarily ignorant. They are open to art when it is open to them.'' From 1980 to 1985, Haring found his trademark cartoon-graffiti style, famously began drawing on blank advertising panels in New York City subway stations, and rapidly became the most Pop and popular of artists, his work proliferating on T-shirts, posters, and urban murals. Unfortunately, however, Haring wrote almost nothing during his transition from eager student to international celebrity. The journals resume as a record of trips abroad to oversee exhibitions, and to create artworks and a store in Tokyo, but lively anecdotes are in short supply. The virtual absence of editorial notes, irritating throughout, seems almost malicious after chronological caesurae, for few of the fellow artists, dealers, friends, and stray acquaintances Haring mentions are identified even with a surname. Haring's whirlwind activity is shadowed by deaths--Andy Warhol's inspires a splendid, moving discussion of Pop Art and Warhol's relationship with Haring as mentor, friend, and artistic compatriot. As Haring's own health began failing (he died of AIDS in 1990, at age 31), he took more delight in mundane details, poignantly writing in 1989, ``Every time I come to Europe I think I'm going to live forever.'' Fragmentary, not particularly enlightening, and lacking notes, these journals offer limited rewards even to the Haring aficionado. (illustrations, not seen) (Book-of-the-Month Club selection)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
