WILD ABOUT HARING

A year and a half after Keith Haring's death, John Gruen's new book reminisces on the eighties art star's lust for life

Postscript

Madonna: Keith's work started in the street, and the first people who were interested in his art were the people who were interested in me—that is, the black and Hispanic community. . . . Another thing we have in common— and this happened quite early—was the envy and hostility coming from a lot of people who wanted us to stay small. Because we both became very commercial and started making a lot of money, people eliminated us from the realm of being artists.... When I think of Keith, I don't feel alone.... I don't feel alone in my celebration of what I've achieved. I don't feel alone in the odds I've been up against. I feel so akin to Keith in so many ways!

Keith Haring: It is Andy [Warhol] who introduces me to Grace Jones [and] persuades Grace to let me paint her. ... I'm a nervous wreck because Grace is late, as always, and Andy is sitting there—waiting. Two hours later, Grace arrives by motorcycle, in a rush, because now she's late for her next appointment. But she disrobes down to her bikini underwear and I begin to paint her.

Roy Lichtenstein: What I like best about Haring's work is that when he's finished a piece, there's nothing you could think of that you'd want to change. Even if he did something all at once—without standing back—there just isn't a false move.

Keith Haring: I began thinking about the Pop Shop. ... I knew I'd get a lot of criticism for it, but. . . you had to avoid crass commercialism and also keep some hold on the art world. ... In the meantime, the work had its own momentum. It was out in the world, and I had to kind of restrain it and keep it from getting out of hand.. . . There were endless proposals from television and manufacturers which had to be turned down, because there was a specific vision for the work which had to be followed.

Excerpted from Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography, by John Gruen, to be published this month by Prentice Hall Press.

Yoko Ono: I have always thought Keith and Andy Warhol, who were such good friends and had so much in common, were really very different artists. Andy made statements that had a terrific sense of humor, but he treated his statements very, very seriously. . . . Keith deals with very, very serious subjects, such as AIDS, but graphically... in a very humorous, even uplifting way.

Keith Haring: After my [1986] Shafrazi show, I travel to Brazil to visit Kenny Scharf. One day, we're sitting around looking at Andy's book America, which has all these photographs of his friends. There's a picture of me skinny-dipping in his pool in Montauk, and there are pictures of Madonna—it's like going down memory lane. After looking at this book, I decide to go into town and call New York. The first thing I'm told is that Andy has died. I can't believe it! I go back and tell Kenny. That night we make a big bonfire for Andy on the beach in Brazil.

[After testing positive for the HIV virus] you're completely wrecked. You go through a major, major upset. ... I went over to the East River on the Lower East Side and just cried and cried and cried.

But then you have to get yourself together and you have to go on. You realize it's not the end right then and there— that you've got to continue, and you've got to figure out how you're going to deal with it and confront it and face it.... You can't despair, because if you do, you just give up and you stop.

What I can't understand is that, going into 1990, there's still resistance to my work from the American art establishment. In a way, I'm glad there's resistance, because it gives me something to fight against. . .. People might say, "If you're not interested in being a part of the system, then you shouldn't care that you're being ignored by the museums and the curators." Well, I really do believe that it will all happen later—the acceptance. It's going to happen when I'm not here to appreciate it.