Along the way, Haring’s art seems to have gained a vague but evocative cultural cachet. “I think his aesthetic has become synonymous with an idea of ‘good old times’ in the late 20th Century: times that people think of as better, or at least simpler, than now,” Hicks says. He suggests that Haring-branded clothing items appeal to Gen Z consumers in particular because they represent “the enduring cool of the 1980s queer underground in New York”, but also tap into our collective nostalgia for all things 1990s. Though Haring died just six weeks into the decade of Friends and Britpop, his work continued to wield an influence. “If you look at the graphics and visuals of early 1990s MTV, they’re often very Haring-esque,” Hicks says.
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It all adds up to a legacy as multifaceted as Haring’s own creative practice. Hicks believes art critics and museum curators take him more seriously now than when he was alive because his enduringly resonant activism adds gravitas to impulses they initially dismissed as “populist”. However, it is precisely this aspect of his work that is vulnerable to being glossed over by brands who turn his work into merchandise.
On the website for its Haring-inspired collection, H&M mentions Haring’s “strong social messages” without going into specifics. “Any brand that tries to gain cultural capital from Haring without acknowledging his queerness is under-selling him and not engaging with his work in its truest sense,” Anderson says.
Dan Glass, an author and activist for ACT UP London, agrees. “Haring dedicated his creative expression to some of the most demonised and oppressed people on the planet – people living with HIV/Aids,” he says. “His art was more than just pretty pictures on the subway or gallery walls. It was a joyful stand against oppression and for the liberation of the masses.”
In Glass’s eyes, the artist’s “true brilliance is in danger of being diluted and sanitised” if his activism isn’t baked into every brand collaboration as a key ingredient. He believes that Haring’s legacy could “shine even brighter” in the future if the foundation committed to only “aligning with brands that genuinely contribute to mass positive transformation [in the world] rather than those “simply using [Haring’s work] for their own profit margins”.
At this point, Haring’s art isn’t just more popular than ever; it also means different things to different people. It’s impossible to know whether Haring would approve of every single way his work has been displayed and distributed since his death, but its lasting mass appeal seems to chime with something he once wrote in his journals, which were published in 2010: “I am interested in making art to be experienced and explored by as many individuals as possible with as many different individual ideas about the given piece with no final meaning attached. The viewer creates the reality, the meaning, the conception of the piece.”
Voice of the Street: Keith Haring’s Subway Drawings is at Moco Museum, London from 18 March until 18 June. Keith Haring is at The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, New York, until 31 May.
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