LUMU, until 16th November,1200 ft (discounts available)
Komor Marcell u. 1 [map]
Pest, IX, Boraros tér (T 4,6), 8 min
Hot on the heels of what would have been Keith Haring’s 50th birthday (4 May), Budapest’s Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art has brought a prominent American artist’s work to Hungary.
The fact that most of the pieces in the Haring exhibition span only a few years is a bit of a disappointment but you can hardly hold that against the Ludwig — AIDS tragically and bitterly cut his life short seventeen years ago, at the ripe age of 31. Having said that, while there are only so many fruitful years from an artist who dies young, the exhibition did seem to lack certain items that would have helped show the diversity in Haring’s graffiti-inspired expressions.
Although it isn’t billed as a retrospective, there is perhaps a simple solution: some of his famed chalk drawings from the NYC subways would have made it come close (if indeed, any were even saved or preserved). Instead the museum attempts to sum up Haring’s life with a pretty lacklustre timeline as you walk up the stairs. Check Keith striking a vogue with Madonna in that Polaroid! Wow-wee!
Haring’s work balances many aspects of living in America in the 1980s (New York City to be exact) — consumerism, the backlash against the advertising industry, the AIDS crisis, and race. Haring managed to pull this off without being preachy. Cheeky, yes, but fantastically so. The result is something extremely thought-provoking, certainly what the artist was shooting for in a time with so much cultural garbage.
One thing anyone will notice after stepping through the door is the prevalence of penises in probably 80% (my rough estimate) of his work. Any guy who can use that sheer amount of phallic representation, and continually come up with something new must have had something going on upstairs.
Personally, I’m a fan of art that doesn’t take you days to extract a deep meaning from and Haring’s use of well-known cultural symbols to drum up discourse is intelligent without being over-bearing. As far as I‘m concerned, Warhol never seemed to say that much, but Haring takes Warhol‘s ideas a step beyond.Take for example, one of the larger pieces from the show, Prophets of Rage, 1988. It’s homage to his buddy Jean-Michel Basquiat just before his fatal drug overdose. There’s a ton of cultural symbols: the oppressed black man, crumbling religion, a suffering and decapitated Jesus, power, money…. Point is, you can use signifiers to come up with something new that will remain relevant.
One of my biggest qualms with the exhibition in general is the fact that the main piece used in advertising it, 1982’s Untitled (the ‘red dog figure tossin’ around those two green dudes‘, as I like to call it) is grossly misrepresented in all of the promotional material for the show. If you’ve got a set of working eyes and have been in Budapest for any length of time, even an airport layover, then you’ll probably have seen some sort of publicity for the exhibition - specifically this piece.
Well, if you do go, check it out, not that you have any choice. This thing is NEON! NOT the primary red and yellow plastered onto posters all around Budapest. I’m talking spandex bicycle shorts, Day-Glo snap bracelets, “surfs up dude”, full on 80s neon. Maybe they didn’t want to spoil the vivid, eye-aching sensation of actually seeing the piece up close… although, I guess I just did.All told, Haring’s work is definitely worth a trip to the Ludwig, whether you're a fan, on the fence... or even if you just have absolutely no idea who this guy is.
Jacob P.
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