Pop Goes the Easel

Keith Haring died in 1990 at the height of his popularity as a downtown street artist in New York City. He was infamous for his primitive and renegade subway drawings, but he was also a pop culture icon. He represented a turn in the art world, where a kid with...

By Amanda McCorquodale

May 20, 2010

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Keith Haring died in 1990 at the height of his popularity as a downtown street artist in New York City. He was infamous for his primitive and renegade subway drawings, but he was also a pop culture icon. He represented a turn in the art world, where a kid with a spray can was considered an artist, hip-hop culture intersected with the gay scene, and street art infiltrated gallery walls. Seeing little difference between his pieces being commodities in the art market or in the retail world, he opened Pop Shop, a retail/art space in lower Manhattan, in 1986. As part of “Pop Shop Don’t Shop,” three panels from the sign outside Haring’s space, which closed in 2005, are on display at Kill Your Idol. The exhibit of NYC ’80s street art is a private collection of fellow street artists Paolo Buggiani and Robin Van Arsdol (AKA R.V.). Others artists on display through June 20 include Barbara Kruger, Ken Hiratsuka, Dombrowski, Red Spot, Liz & Val, Brooklyn Skip, On the Move, and Linus Corragio.
Fri., June 4, 8 p.m., 2010

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