Keith Haring is a graffiti/neo pop artist from
Reading, Pennsylvania. Haring mostly painted in New York on unused advertising
panels that were covered with black paper in a subway station. In 1988, Haring
was diagnosed with AIDs. After that most of his artwork revolved around the
disease and being a queer male, mainly in America.
His
piece, ‘Rebel with Many Causes’ depicts three male figures in the famous poses
of speak no evil, see no evil, and hear no evil. The supposed ‘evil’ is the
AIDs crisis that was going on in American. This piece is meant to criticize the
people who would refuse to acknowledge the social issue. The criticism aimed
mainly towards the government because at the time they weren’t really
acknowledging the massive death count that the disease was creating. However,
it’s also aimed at everyone else too. People were literally ignoring the fact
that there was a deadly disease mainly because the biggest minority group
affected was the queer community, specifically queer men. Since Haring himself
was a queer man diagnosed with AIDs and he had lost a lot of close friends to
the disease he felt like it was his duty to speak up about.
I
believe Haring effectively ridiculed America and the government and brought
awareness to AIDs but I’m not that sure that he really pushed any of them to
take act against the epidemic. I feel like his piece made people think about it
more and possibly through that spread more awareness. However, I don’t think
Haring achieved his second purpose of enacting change.
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