A sticky situation this morning at the Keith Haring sculpture on Astor Place
Photo by Lola Sáenz
A new day dawned at the Keith Haring's "Self Portrait" on Astor Place at Third Avenue ... with stickers (featuring a QR code for some film project) all over the sculpture ...
Haring's early shows were exciting, crowds of young people from all walks of life, not typical of art gallery goers at the time. It is unfortunate that his art is just another "safe" corporate art sitting in front of black glass box filled with tech companies.
It's clear the Haring estate is now in it to make money. I've seen his work on beach towels, shower curtains, etc everywhere lately. Wallpaper. A shame.
I hope they go after the people whose info is on the stickers, b/c this is straight-up VANDALISM. It's another sign of the shitty values and complete lack of respect some people have, which is helping to make NYC a hellhole.
If I knew who did this, you can be sure that suddenly overnight they would find copious numbers of stickers wherever they live: all over their car, their garage door, and/or their front door.
If one knows anything about Keith Haring it's that he made no bones about selling his work while he was alive so comments about putting his *designs* on t-shirts, coffee mugs, wallpaper or beach towels are quite misguided. He was the guy, after all, who opened the Pop Shop for exactly this purpose.
Ditto for this corporate acquisition nonsense. In fact it's the rich, very rich, uber rich and corporate entities who fund, buy, and promote contemporary artists, both emerging and established. Without this direct monetary support the Art World as we know it wouldn't exist.
Anon@6:07pm - you could simply do a Google search if you had any genuine concern about what the Haring Foundation does with licensing money. There's an explainer here: https://www.haring.com/kh_foundation/licensing "Revenues generated through licensing support the Foundation’s grant making activities." Information on those grants can be found on the Foundation's public IRS 990 forms. The 2020 form lists grants to more than 60 organizations: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/110249024/202122259349100722/full
Haring became famous by putting his grafitti on public and private property. So please shed not tears for his scupture placed at the center of "mid-town south". This is how art is used to gloss over what this neighborhood was and it's new role of high rent, night life and a dumb toursts spot.
Side note in reply to XTC's comment: The art world "as we know it" should cease to exist. It centers itself around deals and money rather than art. It will eventually collapse like the record industry and its direction should then be determined by artists, not rich collectors.
13 comments:
Haring's early shows were exciting, crowds of young people from all walks of life, not typical of art gallery goers at the time. It is unfortunate that his art is just another "safe" corporate art sitting in front of black glass box filled with tech companies.
I really don't think Keith would mind about this, probably have a good laugh.
It's clear the Haring estate is now in it to make money. I've seen his work on beach towels, shower curtains, etc everywhere lately. Wallpaper. A shame.
I hope they go after the people whose info is on the stickers, b/c this is straight-up VANDALISM. It's another sign of the shitty values and complete lack of respect some people have, which is helping to make NYC a hellhole.
If I knew who did this, you can be sure that suddenly overnight they would find copious numbers of stickers wherever they live: all over their car, their garage door, and/or their front door.
If one knows anything about Keith Haring it's that he made no bones about selling his work while he was alive so comments about putting his *designs* on t-shirts, coffee mugs, wallpaper or beach towels are quite misguided. He was the guy, after all, who opened the Pop Shop for exactly this purpose.
Ditto for this corporate acquisition nonsense. In fact it's the rich, very rich, uber rich and corporate entities who fund, buy, and promote contemporary artists, both emerging and established. Without this direct monetary support the Art World as we know it wouldn't exist.
What an a-hole move.
Much ado about nothing. Keith Haring started by putting his art in the subway stations.
Mark Kostabi. Now that's an "ar-teast"! 🤣
Anon@6:07pm - you could simply do a Google search if you had any genuine concern about what the Haring Foundation does with licensing money. There's an explainer here: https://www.haring.com/kh_foundation/licensing "Revenues generated through licensing support the Foundation’s grant making activities." Information on those grants can be found on the Foundation's public IRS 990 forms. The 2020 form lists grants to more than 60 organizations: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/110249024/202122259349100722/full
@6:08 PM
Haring became famous by putting his grafitti on public and private property. So please shed not tears for his scupture placed at the center of "mid-town south". This is how art is used to gloss over what this neighborhood was and it's new role of high rent, night life and a dumb toursts spot.
Fine them.
Harings original works were considered vandalism back when New York was really a hell hole. This is LaLa Land compared to then.
Side note in reply to XTC's comment: The art world "as we know it" should cease to exist. It centers itself around deals and money rather than art. It will eventually collapse like the record industry and its direction should then be determined by artists, not rich collectors.
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