26rd FIFA's Archive | |
| Competition |
|
| THE UNIVERSE OF KEITH HARING |
| Italy, France/2007/Betacam/colour/92 min/french, english, german, english subtitles | |||||
 "Art is for everyone!" is how artist Keith Haring (1958-1990) summed up his stylized silhouettes with which he decorated the streets of New York's East Village. Bent on reaching a large and diverse public, and on breaking down the barriers between "high art" and "low art," Haring began drawing white chalk drawings on black subway panels. At the heart of a new social phenomenon, he revolutionized contemporary art over the space of a single decade (1980-1990), using new supports (subways, city walls, plastic and metal found objects) to create an immediately identifiable graphic style-brightly coloured synthetic shapes underscored in black. A disciple and friend of Andy Warhol, inspired by Pop Art, comic books and graffiti art, Keith Haring painted the body of Grace Jones and the Berlin Wall, illustrated badges, buttons and T-shirts in a fight against apartheid and AIDS, selling them in his Pop Shop in Soho. This film is a multifaceted reconstruction of his rise to fame, beginning with his childhood in Pennsylvania. Audio interviews with the artist made by his biographer John Gruen serve as connecting threads in this detailed exploration of the career of a popular and influential artist, whose impact on the contemporary imagination was prodigious. Keith Haring died of AIDS at the age of 31. Biography Christina Clausen was born in Denmark but now lives in Rome. Since 1991 she has worked for the Italian network RAI, while also working in Austrian and Swiss television. Since 1994 she has curated several audiovisual projects for contemporary art exhibitions in Italy. Filmography Tedeschi in Italia 1943-1945 (1998). |  |
|
|||