Keith Haring Journals (34 page)

I did a drawing for Franz and Rolf and Xeroxed all of my drawings so I could take the originals with me. They gave me a copy of the preliminary test films. We hugged and said goodbye. They promised they will send me the little Smurf and Smurfette ice-cream containers that I had emptied earlier.

I arrived at the airport, checked in and got on the plane to Brussels. When I got my luggage and left the customs area I found Jean Tinguely waiting for me. He had been on the same flight from Zurich, had a first-class ticket for me, and had just missed me getting on the plane. The people on the plane couldn’t tell him whether I was on or not, so he waited to find me afterwards. We drove together to Knokke in a car Roger had sent. It was a great ride. We talked about: what we both have been working on, Japan, skateboard ramps, graffiti in New York, his ticket for driving 150 mph, painting race cars, painting airplanes, Niki de St. Phalle’s painted airplane, Paris, collaborating on drawings to be editioned by Pierre Keller, the Guggenheim, fountains, not working, working, Roger’s cooking, calligraphy, the Beaubourg, Pontus Hulten, Galerie Beyeler, Bruno Bischofberger, money, the restaurant he did in Kyoto, flower arranging, his next trip to New York, etc., etc., etc., and ended up doing drawings in the back seat for the rest of the way to Knokke. He always says amazing things to me, and is really supportive. He assured me that he could convince Pontus Hulten to get me permission to see the “sunken lobby” of the Beaubourg, which I tried to initiate a few years ago to no avail. He’s so cool, he understands how I understand calligraphy, and he gives me a lot of credit for things others don’t notice. He really makes me feel at home. We did some cool drawings together, mostly me adding to drawings he had done earlier, but we decided next time to start from scratch and be more equal in our efforts. Our drawing habits complement each other nicely.

I woke early after strange dreams. Something about biker gang murders, my sisters, Kermit, Juan, moving or cleaning apartments, leaving a ladder in the street in front of the church, a pizza shop, looking at a U.S. map inside the Rhode insurance agency, firing a houseboy, etc., etc., all taking place in Kutztown or a combination of Kutztown and New York. The moon was almost full last night and sleeping inside the Dragon at the Nellens’ house was really strange. It was almost as bright as daylight outside and the light was pouring through all the round holes in the windows. Sleeping alone, I awoke a few times during the night to piss and look out the windows. Sleeping in Niki’s dragon is a lot like a dream anyway. I remember this summer having strange dreams also. I wonder how much effect this could have had on the work I was doing in Knokke and my unconscious self?

I just boarded the plane to Nice. It’s funny to me how many different ways my name gets spelled on boarding passes, but this is the best. I’ve seen Harding, Harving, etc., but this one says Harinck. Looks/sounds like a combination of Inc. and ink; I like that.

This morning I drove with Monique to Brussels and met Pierre Staeck and went to the school where he is the director. He is a big fan and supporter of my work. I first met him when he interviewed me at Daniel Templon Gallery in Paris last year. He lectures about me and has written articles about me. He says he wants to write a longer, serious piece about me sometime soon. His school is small, but concentrated. It is called something like the Center for Graphic Research, and teaches video, drawing, painting, advertising, and is the most famous in Belgium for cartooning. There are only about 180 students. He has arranged an impromptu slide lecture at 9:00 AM. I arrive, put in my slides and do a quick talk, stopping after every sentence for a translation.

I seemed to do well, but it is always difficult to tell when you are using a translator. It is very hard to explain subtle points. One question may have benefited from the need to simplify: I was asked if it is different to do a painting in the street, and in a museum. Does the painting suffer when it changes contexts? I answered simply that of course it changes, just as any painting is perceived differently in a museum or a public place. My work does not necessarily suffer more just because it’s associated with the street. A change of context changes
any
painting equally, but the work remains the same!

Another point was made by a teacher who likened my use of color blocks with black lines on top to Léger’s. He asked if it bothers me that in fact we use an almost identical “system.” I said that for a viewer to associate me with Léger could only be a compliment, because my process for arriving at this result is quite different from Léger’s. I acknowledge my debt to him, as to all previous artists I have learned from (including Picasso, Warhol, Matisse, etc). The point is that though I may have borrowed or stolen (if you wish) his technique of color with black lines overlaid (also used by Miró), I’ve made it my own by using it in my own way.

I do not, as Léger, work out the color/line relationship with pencil and work and rework it until it is satisfactory. I do not use it on a canvas as a kind of investigation of formal relationships. Léger already did that, so I don’t need to. I use this technique to cover large areas, usually on murals, sometimes on canvas (and now animation), as a tool or vehicle for my work. I paint spontaneously the color shapes and then directly apply the black lines, also spontaneously, in relation to the color shapes (and often inspired by them). This becomes a process (full of chance), which is a tool to use as I wish to produce an effective result.

It has, I suppose, a calculated effect, since I know it will work. The task is for me to use this effect in a way that is both challenging to me and successfully balanced and evocative to the viewer. The skill of drawing and balance is the key, not the technique. The paintings do not only bear a resemblance to Léger, of course, but also evoke comparisons to African, American Indian, Aztec and other traditional forms, but not by imitation, but because of the quality of drawing. The images drawn on top of the color blocks are quite different than Léger and have more in common, I think, with the art and images from the other cultures I just mentioned. At the same time that they are associated with these so-called “primitive” cultures by their use of linear, two-dimensional, and even decorative elements, the information being conveyed is completely contemporary and in most cases would not or could not have existed before. They are informed by technology, popular culture and the Information Age. They explore the “effect” of these new realities on the human condition and experience of the “self.”

Also the way in which they are executed and the places they are executed is quite different from Léger. I think he would be quite happy to see these paintings “accepted” by the public he desperately tried to reach during his lifetime. Because of his interest in Socialism and politics, he sought to place his paintings in public places of work and was quite disappointed when the “workers” in the factory rejected his offerings. This is not the case with me. Most of these paintings are put in public places (i.e., schools, hospitals, swimming pools, parks, etc.) and quite rarely do any of them receive a negative reaction. In fact, I have found the public quite anxious to accept and appreciate my work, while the bourgeois and the “critical art world” is much less receptive and feel themselves to be “above” such work.

As Pierre Staeck pointed out to me, the popular culture and the artists of Léger’s time were so far separated that the artists could not accept him. Now, after 50 years of cartoons, television, advertising, Pop Art, video music and films, the gap has been shortened so much that an artist like Keith Haring is possible. The “official” culture and the “popular” culture are often intermingled and sometimes even identical. The artist no longer needs to remain outside of the public. This doesn’t sound to me like a new idea. Remember Andy Warhol? The Information Age and the camera have blurred the boundaries between high and low art. If Léger were alive today, wouldn’t he want to draw with a computer? Wouldn’t he be quite happy to be able to see his images televised to the “masses” he dreamed of working for? Yes, of course, now people can go to a museum and appreciate a Léger painting. Probably many more accept it immediately, but that is another thing! In time everything becomes palatable. Picasso no longer looks as shocking as he did originally. He has been safely categorized as an “artistic genius,” whose pictures have been proven to be “important” and even “classic” by the tremendous prices they fetch. The market has proven them a sound
investment
! People wear dresses covered with prints similar to Léger and Picasso, and have for the last 25 years. How could you expect them to still find it vulgar and radical as it was 50 or 60 years ago?

But we’re not talking about things that are accepted
later
, we’re talking about
now
. The length of time it takes for something to go through the process of consumption and acceptance and imitation has been getting shorter and shorter and shorter. Even Pop Art took at least ten years to be assimilated into the culture. But not now! My works appeared on T-shirts and clothes in every continent of the world
before
I had even made
one
real KH T-shirt. Before I had even
one
museum exhibition. Before I was dead. Before it was even considered or proven to have any “monetary investment value.”
This is the new phenomenon
. This is art of an Information Age that is moving so quickly that it may soon go beyond catching up and actually surpass itself, so that the popular culture dictates the actions of artists and makes an elitist separatist culture obsolete. This is a very frightening idea to the people who wish to keep their positions in the safety of the “art world” and remain separate and special. I am sure that there is someone who will use my example as a starting point and go beyond what I have done, so much so that I will one day look as “old” and as “classic” as Léger. And I’m sure that one day an artist will be asked, “Doesn’t it bother you that you have used a technique similar to that of Keith Haring to achieve your effect?” And I’m sure he (or she) will be as ready to answer as I was!

I arrived in Nice and met Yves and Debbie.

Yesterday when I arrived at Yves and Debbie’s, the first thing I see is a beautiful Tunisian girl of about 17 years wearing a little maid’s outfit complete with stockings and high heels. Now I know I’m in the right place. The baby, my goddaughter, is incredibly adorable. Madison looks like a little baby lamb that hasn’t grown any fur yet. She’s really cool. They have a cute German girl who is the temporary “nanny.” Yves has another name for it, something in French, which he explains means “a beautiful young girl who takes care of the children.” He’s too much! Anyway, the house looks great and it’s a relief to finally be in a kind of paradise atmosphere with no appointments or obligations.

We had dinner with Grace last night. She’s here to find an apartment in Paris, since she plans to be in Europe a lot this year. She and Debbie went swimming in the ocean the night before, so she caught a bad cold and doesn’t stop whining. I’m convinced she will not feel better till everyone feels worse than her, as she is constantly moaning and complaining, “Why me?”

Anyway, it was nice to see her. She came for dinner, and Marisa Del Re and an assistant from her gallery. They were working on a sculpture show at the Casino, where a huge Lichtenstein is installed in front with the Calder and the Appel. The installation/placement is horrible, but the piece is fantastic. I can’t imagine what sculpture
could
survive the same placement in front of the Casino. It is so kitsch and overdone that only a really tacky bronze fountain could compete with it. We talked about art a bit. Marisa said she liked my sculpture in Münster. Can you imagine that in front of the Casino? Preferably jammed in between all of the existing sculpture, I’m sure! Yuck! Kind of like a yard sale at a museum!

Grace had to be escorted (driven) home the entire two blocks by Yves and me and of course she insisted we come in and was practically begging for a massage. But against Yves’ better judgment, we decided to leave. Not before she insisted on showing us the suppositories Patrick bought her for her cold: Ahh, the full moon . . .

I walked around more, went to look at the Lichtenstein sculpture up close. It’s really incredible. Must be aluminum. It’s really thick. It is three brush strokes blown up to huge size and painted accordingly. Incredible job. It’s probably 30 feet high. Really cool and really Pop. I wonder what Claes Oldenburg thinks of it . . .

I’m looking at it with the full moon behind, and I walk around it for a long time.

I finally got back in the house. It is 7:00 AM. The door downstairs apparently gets locked at 5:00. I arrived back at 5:15 and couldn’t get in. Nobody answered the phone till now. What a wonderful morning. Now the sun is so bright I can’t go to sleep. Everyone took Valiums after dinner, so nobody heard the phone. Spent all day doing nothing. Bought art supplies, visited Grace, ate Tunisian food. Hung out for a while with a Moroccan waiter. Everything amounted to nothing, but I suppose that is the joy of Monte Carlo . . . doing nothing.