Self Portrait

Dance was a large part of the 1980s New York scene, and played a large part in Keith Haring’s life and artistic production. Although he is best known for the sociopolitical commentary in his works, the theme of dance was also incorporated into the fabric of his art making. His first encounter of combining elements of dance in his work was in 1978, when he made Video Clones, a video of Molissa Fenley, a modern dancer, where he focused solely on her foot movements. The theme of dance was also incorporated into certain drawings and paintings, such as his 1982 work Subway Drawing (Electric Boogie Dancer) and his 1987 Untitled. At times, Haring would use his friend Bill T. Jones, an accomplished dancer, as his reference in showing movement in his works.

His sculptures made during the 1980s also appropriate dance elements , some portraying actual moves of the time, such as the electric slide and the spider move. Self-Portrait, created in 1989, only a year before the artist’s untimely death at the age of 31, is a reflection of Haring in mid-dance, reflecting his passion for the music, dance and nightlife of his era. Haring’s roommate in the early 1980s, Kenny Scharf stated, “From the first moment we met, dance was very much a part of our lives. We first revolved around the B-52s. We followed them everywhere, dancing for hours. We danced space-age go-go, the jerk, [and] the pony” (K. Scharf, quoted in Keith Haring, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, 1997, p. 214). Haring gave this sculpture life, vigor and movement. The play between the two dimensionality and three dimensionality of the work makes the sculpture lose the stiff, static aspect of traditional sculpture, and thrusts it into a work truly influenced by its time.

Self-Portrait also addresses another important issue of New York in the 80s—AIDS. It carries an added meaning, one of empathy, perseverance and defiance. The AIDS epidemic had quite a large effect on the New York art scene of the 1980s, with many artists either knowing someone who had the disease or having it themselves. Being an openly gay artist addressing sociopolitical issues in his work, the fight for AIDS research and treatment was a topic close to Haring’s heart, and even more so when he was diagnosed with it in 1988. This work in many ways can be seen as a monument—a contemporary take on Rodin’s Balzac, playing with two and three dimensionality. Creating this work in his well-known simplified, childlike, cartoonish style, Haring strips this work of any individuality, despite it being his self-portrait; it is meant to be apiece that people who are also struggling with gay rights and AIDS can relate to.

Haring’s art nearing the end of his career were devoted to AIDS, as he attempted to put a human face on a disease that had taken so many, and on a topic that many people were still afraid of addressing. Self-Portrait is not a work that lamented Haring’s diagnosis and impending death. Rather, it is one that celebrates his life and passion.

It was also important to Haring to give back to the larger art community. Many of his public works were in locations where there were many children. He created murals and sculptures in the U.S. and Europe, in such locations as the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris, the San Antonia Church in Pisa and the Carmine Street Swimming Pool in New York.

Haring’s distinct style and sociopolitical commentary made him one of the most respected artists of his time. Haring aimed to speak to his generation, he created a new language through art, and hoped that people would see his works and be inspired to act. “[Sculpture] has a kind of power that a painting doesn't have. You can't burn it. It would survive a nuclear blast probably. It has this permanent, real feeling that will exist much, much longer than I will ever exist, so it's a kind of immortality. All of it I guess, to a degree, is like that... All of the things that you make are a kind of quest for immortality” (K. Haring, quoted in Flash Art, March 1984, p. 22).

Haring’s sculptures owe much to the graphic lines of his paintings and drawings, but also to his broad-ranging interest in public art and performance, to his plunge into hip-hop culture, and his admiration for other sculptors such as Alexander Calder. The art historian Robert Farris Thompson described Haring’s work as an homage “to the downrockers, the electric boogie dancers, the capoeiristas, thanking them for proving to us that we were still alive” (op. cit., p. 223). As Haring himself said: “Art should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination, and encourages people to go further” (K. Haring, quoted in J. Deitch, J. Gruen, Keith Haring, New York, 2008, p. 19).