Keith Haring a Milano

The volume is based on the original project by Keith Haring for the catalogue, which was never produced, of his great solo exhibition in Milan in 1984 at the Galleria Salvatore Ala. The book contains excerpts from Keith Haring Journals, in which he describes his life and work in Milan, an interview with the gallery manager Salvatore Ala, an essay by the curator which analyzes the 1984 exhibition and pinpoints its historical importance for Haring and the city of Milan. At the end of the volume a press review brings back to life the voices of journalists and critics, the atmosphere of the very moment. A large amount of colour and black-and-white pictures accompany the texts, including the photos of the works of art especially created for the exhibition, various historical shots of Haring working in the gallery, pictures from the inauguration portraying Haring and his many guests.

Keith Haring is the highest expression of the social and artistic unrest of the eighties called graffiti art. Keith Haring was a real artist, a symbol of the era of comics as well as the cultural influence of the Maya and pre-Colombian populations, of Japanese pictograms and Picasso’s revolutionary artwork. His choice to use sprays, markers and paints instead of traditional instruments and traditional surfaces highlights his radical behaviour, his preference for a newer and independent style. His images are “universal” and have become a landmark in the contemporary iconographic heritage.