Keith Haring Journals (47 page)

The whole evening was pretty amazing—a lot of interesting conversations. It really made me rethink the stuff I was doing when I was involved in performance in New York in 1979-80. I was going to see all these people’s works then and also doing some myself. Somehow I think the spirit of this work is still alive in my work. I really feel an affinity to this group almost as strongly as to the Burroughs/Ginsberg/poetry /writing group. It all overlaps and I certainly learned a lot of things from both of them. It was nice to rediscover it.

I’m in Milan waiting for the connection to Pisa. We flew from Brussels today and had a two-hour visit in Milan. We saw Nicola and drove around a little.

Thursday and Friday in Paris was fun. Thursday I did the painting for the airship. After waiting for the paint to arrive (two hours late) I painted the whole thing in four and a half hours. My hand still hurts. I think it’s one of the better paintings I ever made. The size of the brush (35 cm) made it an interesting challenge. It was physically difficult (holding the brush) but actually very, very easy to choreograph.

After the painting we returned to the hotel and I made phone calls for two hours.

Then we ate, I called George and Anna and then went out to this club Sardine. Lots and lots of cute boys. It looks exactly like New York, except the Puerto Ricans are Moroccan here. Good music, smoked and danced till late.

Friday I had a “press lunch” with the airship people (boring and trivial). Then went to Futura’s exhibit and bought a nice new painting. Met David Galloway there. He came to Paris to interview me for the book Hans Mayer is doing on my sculptures. Went with David to see the airship painting again and do photos. We talked a lot and by the time we got to the hotel the conversation got deeper and continually off the “subject.”

Did some photos for a German spaghetti book. (Portrait of me with a drawing I made out of spaghetti we ordered from room service.) I talked with David till it was time for dinner at Marcel Fleiss’s house with Yoko and Sam. Nice quiet dinner and then returned to hotel with David to talk till 1:30.

I went out to Bobino. It was packed. I ran into Futura and CC. A few people wanted autographs and I met some fun people. Stayed out till 5:00 AM.

A car picked us up at noon to go to Knokke. Knokke was great as usual. Kwong Chi loved it. I saw my surfer buddies and relaxed a little. Sunday we went to Katia Perlstein’s wedding. It was my first Jewish wedding. Tony was there. We talked a little. I had fun dancing with everyone.

I really love Knokke. It feels really clean and natural. I always eat well and feel really happy. In the morning the birds are always singing. Played with the dog on the trampoline. (He didn’t like it very much.) Today we drove to Brussels with Sylvaine (Roger’s daughter) and went to see her homeopathic doctor. He prescribed me a program of daily capsules. I’m anxious to see what happens. A lot of people have told me about homeopathic medicine and it’s really frustrating watching the KS lesions accumulate with no visible results from the AZT. Maybe this will help. Something has to.

So, now we’re in Milano. I’m getting restless and anxious to be in Pisa.

Pisa has been amazing. I don’t know where to start. I realize now that this is one of the most important projects I’ve ever done. The wall is really part of the church. It’s attached to the building the friars live in. I had dinner with the friars the other night and visited the chapel. All of the experiences around this painting (the assistants, the friars, the journalists and photographers, the groups of kids from Pisa) have been really positive. B-boys from Pisa, etc., etc. The people here are really nice, a little aggressive sometimes, but basically really sweet. Jan came from Amsterdam to help paint—Rolf and Franz (the animators) came from Zurich yesterday. The weather has been great and the food better. The painting took four days. At certain points there were huge crowds of people. I’m staying in a hotel directly across from the wall, so I see it before I sleep and when I wake. There is always someone looking at it (even at 4:00 AM last night). It’s really interesting to see people’s reaction to it.

I had music hooked up to a big speaker while I was painting. Every day was like a block party. One day (the last day of painting) we had a DJ and a crowd dancing at the wall. Constant autographs and photographs. There are some of the most beautiful boys here I’ve ever seen in my life. We met a posse of military kids (parachute jumpers) who come every day and hang out. Kwong Chi has been taking tons of rolls of film.

T-shirts, posters, postcards, and general hysteria. Barbara Leary is here, too.

Interviews constantly. I think I’m only happy when I’m surrounded by all this madness. I enjoy it, actually. It seems to bother me sometimes, but when it stops, I miss it. It takes a lot of patience, though.

This is really an accomplishment. It will be here for a very, very long time and the city really seems to love it. I’m sitting on a balcony looking at the top of the Leaning Tower. It’s really pretty beautiful here. If there is a heaven, I hope this is what it’s like.

I’m in Paris and the blimp is not. I found out Tuesday night in Pisa (right before the inauguration of the wall) that the launch was canceled due to “political” maneuvering. It’s complicated, but I’m hoping it will be resolved
before
I leave for the U.S. so we can do photos. I still haven’t really seen it except for it being on the ground while I painted it.

Pisa was incredible. Debbie Arman came for the party on Monday night. As well as Julia and Tobias and David Neirings. Also, of course, Viken Arslanian and Jason from Antwerp.

The painting got finished on Saturday with five guys helping me to fill in the color. It was amazing. When we finished we would’ve been in the dark, but we were lit by movie lights and some others the city had installed to permanently light the mural. There was loud cheering, applause, and champagne as the final color was finished. The whole reception by the town was really overwhelming. The church, the neighbors, the B-boys, all the kids and supporters from all around Italy. It was really one of my best projects ever. We had one final dinner and then rushed to the train station with Roberto and Piergiorgio (who’ve been amazing through this whole thing) and the “parachuters” and David and Franz and Rolf. Emotional departures as the train pulled out of the station.

I woke up the next morning depressed to be arriving in France. Missing Italy already. But now it’s O.K. Samantha [McEwen] is here. I’m working on lithos with Otto Hahn’s wife, Nicole, in a great studio and I met with people about doing a watch. All my time is scheduled already. In fact, I’m going to be late for dinner now with Samantha and James Brown—gotta run . . .

Paris was great, but really busy. Did one interview for
Paris Match;
did some lithos on the stone at Bordas Studio in Bastille; went out Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights; met an acrobatic graffiti artist (very cute) who wants me to come see him perform in the park; painted two vases for Jean-Charles de Castelbajac at his house and spent time with his wife and kids who are quickly becoming friends; meetings about a watch project and a book project; walking through the Tuileries at sunrise; confirmed with Bruno Bischofberger that I was buying the Condo painting of the crucified Easter egg; called many times to Nersi to confirm the arrival of the blimp (to no avail). Talked to Claude and Sydney Picasso, etc., etc., etc. Every time I’m in Paris it’s almost as busy as New York. I should really have an apartment here.

On Saturday Gil arrived on the Concorde at 11:00 PM. We stayed out all night and slept for one hour before we were picked up to go to Knokke at 8:00 AM.

Kwong, Gil and I went to Knokke for the opening of George Segal’s exhibition and the big party at the Nellens’ house. We stayed in the Dragon. Jean Tinguely came. It was great as usual. Fun to be at the Nellens’ house, always!

Monday morning we left for the airport in Brussels very late. Sylvaine drove us at 100 mph to the airport. We made the plane, but when we got to Roma, our luggage didn’t. The hotel was depressing after the Ritz. I’m too spoiled now. We couldn’t find any other, though, and it actually turned out to be O.K.

We met Daniela and Piergiorgio from Pisa and Andrea from the video crew. Everything turned out better. I saw Stefania Casini; worked on incredible computer graphics (drawing on top of photos from Pisa); ate great food; went to see Stevie Wonder in Rome with VIP tickets and got to meet him backstage afterward. He said he had heard about my art. I gave him a T-shirt and some Free South Africa buttons. The concert was amazing. He played for three and a half hours. I cried. I always wanted to see him, and I didn’t think I’d have to go to Rome to do it.

I worked on the computer all day yesterday. We went to see the Sistine Chapel (nearly restored) in the morning. It’s pretty amazing. It’s devastating to see the accumulation of wealth of the church and the power it represents. It never ceases to amaze me: the hypocrisy of the church, especially the Catholic Church. Most of this wealth was
stolen
in the name of God. The art is totally homoerotic. The whole church seems to be controlled by a very ancient and very omnipresent
gay
hierarchy. The choir in the Sistine Chapel used to consist of castrated 16- and 17-year-old boys who probably had many talents other than singing.

All the sculptures are about sexual beauty (asses, hands, feet, cocks) in a very
male
way.

Everyone knows, but everyone pretends not to see. Italians are obsessed with
cazzos
. There are dicks drawn everywhere as graffiti. I saw a beautiful drawing on the wall in Firenze with a huge dick and perfect head. It was really perfect—the curve of the head of the dick just where it meets the shaft. Whoever drew it obviously appreciates the beauty of a perfectly shaped cock head. I wish I had a camera with me.

It was great to be in this ancient city and be working with super-high technology on the computer graphics.

Every time I use a graphic paintbox, I rethink the whole concept of an “image.” The computer has totally changed the whole concept of what composes and defines a “picture space.” The whole relation between the creator and the viewer has changed. The relationship between the physical gesture of drawing and the resultant image has changed. It is totally abstract now, with very little relation to the original “act” of drawing or painting. Images can be moved, stretched, multiplied, shrunk, enlarged, recolored, altered, rotated, flipped, digitized, edited, refined and obliterated in fractions of a second. The image has been reduced to electronic information (programmable) that is totally lucid and malleable.

Illusion is everything. This paintbox I was using in Rome could mix colors just like a palette as well as pick up colors from the photos and duplicate them. It was just like mixing paint, except no mess. It’s only electrons and light.

I did some simple animations also. Really great. My style of drawing is very adaptable to this technology.

It’s really primitive high-tech. It has totally revolutionized the notion of
art
and the image—why hasn’t anyone noticed?