On Sunday, 1 December, the National Gallery of Victoria opened its doors to a world-first exhibition offering new and fascinating insights into the unique visual languages of art world icons, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Titled, ‘Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines’, the NGV invites attendees to travel back in time to the New York City streets of the 80s and examine the intersecting ideas and practices of these two late-twentieth-century artists.
NGV Director, Tony Ellwood AM explained, “Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat were both central figures in the New York art scene in the 80s. Both were quite similar in terms of coming out of a street art aesthetic and we felt there has been enough time to pause and reflect on just how powerful their aesthetic has become world-wide.”
An initial look into the exhibition came in early November this year when NGV moved to resurrect Haring’s mural painted on the popular NGV Water Window in February 1984; reinstating Haring’s depiction of the world through his signature ecstatic dancers, crawling babies, dolphins, dogs, and nuclear explosions.
Featuring over 300 artworks by Haring and Basquiat, ‘Crossing Lines’ captures the unconventional techniques that transformed the world. The exhibition surveys each artist’s tragically short, yet prolific career, displaying works created in public space, painting, sculpture, objects, works on paper, photographs, original notebooks, and more.
“This is about telling a story in a fresh perspective, about two artists who died tragically young, but gave so much back,” said Tony Ellwood AM.
As described by the NGV, Haring and Basquiat changed the art world of the 1980s through their idiosyncratic imagery, radical ideas, and complex socio-political commentary, creating an indelible legacy that continues to influence contemporary visual and popular culture today.
‘Crossing Lines’ is on display until 13 April 2020. For more information visit the NGV official event page.
