In just a few months, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art will be displaying a first: Keith Haring in 3D, a an exhibition showcasing three-dimensional work by 20th-century artist Keith Haring. Haring's iconic two-dimensional images of simple outlined figures moving, dancing and interacting are not the only standout parts of his life's work, which was complete not only with his three-dimensional creations, but pieces that spoke to his identity as a gay man, as well as his strong passion social justice, including his pieces advocating for AIDs awareness, a virus that ultimately killed him.
Keith Haring's lifetime of work, as displayed in Keith Haring in 3D speaks to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Reduced Inequalities and Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. Haring's work reflected not only his personal struggles after contracting HIV, but those across America, as well as racial inequalities rampant across the country in the late 20th century. The AIDs Epidemic is largely understood to have spread as widely as it did and killed so many people, killing more than 3,5oo people by the end of 1984, because of federal negligence and silence under the Ronald Reagan Presidency. Even though health officials first became aware of AIDs in the summer of 1981, Ronald Reagan first publicly mentioned AIDs in September 1985.
Throughout his life, Haring produced hundreds of three-dimensional pieces, ranging from early career work with materials he found on the street, to large wood and metal sculptures. Untitled (Elephant) made in 1985 is one of these pieces - a 5-foot-tall papier-mâché elephant decorated in paintings of Haring's signature figures. The elephant's history actually stretches from Andy Warhol, to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Haring. It was originally a pink prop used by Warhol for a costume exhibition in 1974, a decade later drawn and painted on by Basquiat in Warhol's studio, and then handed over to Haring by Warhol's business manager Fred Hughes.
Some other pieces that can be expected in the exhibition include sculptures, totems, masks, two skateboards, clothing, painted objects, and drawings. Keith Haring in 3D will also have a section dedicated to entirely to his art, the Pop Shop.
Keith Haring's iconic images will be forever recognizable and celebrated, but it is his activism that is, I would argue, most worth celebrating, and integral to his identity as an artist. In his relatively short lifetime, he created work like Silence Equals Death to combat stigma against AIDs running rampant throughout the U.S. and globally. Haring also developed the Free South Africa series, composed of three paintings to advocate against South African apartheid, ultimately transforming Free South Africa 3 into a poster, and distributing 20,000 copies across New York City. For his largest work of art advocacy, he chose the Berlin Wall as his canvas, emphasizing the wall as a symbol of global division during the cold war.