1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:26,750 --> 00:00:27,786 -He kind of took New York by storm, 4 00:00:27,786 --> 00:00:30,513 and he was in all the magazines 5 00:00:30,513 --> 00:00:33,067 before he was 25, worldwide. 6 00:00:35,414 --> 00:00:37,175 -My philosophy was always that art 7 00:00:37,175 --> 00:00:41,075 really could communicate to larger numbers of people 8 00:00:41,075 --> 00:00:45,390 instead of that elitist group of people that could afford it 9 00:00:45,390 --> 00:00:47,806 and "understand it." 10 00:00:49,808 --> 00:00:52,949 -90% or more of the people using the subways 11 00:00:52,949 --> 00:00:54,468 would never go to the Museum of Modern Art. 12 00:00:54,468 --> 00:00:57,333 -That was around the time when Keith kind of went "Bing! 13 00:00:57,333 --> 00:00:59,335 I'm going to do this." 14 00:00:59,335 --> 00:01:01,164 -The crawling baby, 15 00:01:01,164 --> 00:01:05,996 the dog, flying pyramids, dancing man, 16 00:01:05,996 --> 00:01:09,207 turning them into his, like, own vocabulary. 17 00:01:09,207 --> 00:01:12,417 -I was realizing the potential of images 18 00:01:12,417 --> 00:01:16,352 and how much power they had to speak almost as a language. 19 00:01:16,352 --> 00:01:21,391 -Keith had an inherent need to have a dialogue with people. 20 00:01:21,391 --> 00:01:24,291 -For me, the market has very little to do 21 00:01:24,291 --> 00:01:26,465 with what art is supposed to be. 22 00:01:26,465 --> 00:01:29,917 -I was formally introduced to this painting here yesterday 23 00:01:29,917 --> 00:01:31,263 when the brother painted it. 24 00:01:31,263 --> 00:01:33,369 We love it. He alright with us. 25 00:01:33,369 --> 00:01:36,751 -The traditional art world didn't get that he felt 26 00:01:36,751 --> 00:01:39,996 that art should be as accessible as possible. 27 00:01:42,067 --> 00:01:46,140 -As sort of a romantic idea of being an artist of the people, 28 00:01:46,140 --> 00:01:50,800 I just found a way to do it that was very direct. 29 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:53,458 -He was so prolific. I would come back the next day, 30 00:01:53,458 --> 00:01:58,083 and there would be like 4 new paintings and 20 drawings. 31 00:01:58,083 --> 00:01:59,947 Okay. 32 00:01:59,947 --> 00:02:01,949 -I think it's more important to keep coming up 33 00:02:01,949 --> 00:02:05,055 with new images and things that were never made before, 34 00:02:05,055 --> 00:02:07,817 live as fully and as completely as you can, 35 00:02:07,817 --> 00:02:10,785 and deal with the future as it comes to you. 36 00:02:10,785 --> 00:02:14,962 -He was celebrating life up to the very end. 37 00:02:14,962 --> 00:02:20,623 ♪♪ 38 00:02:20,623 --> 00:02:26,284 ♪♪ 39 00:02:26,284 --> 00:02:31,634 -So this is the eighth day of August, 1989, 40 00:02:31,634 --> 00:02:34,947 and I'm speaking with Keith Haring. 41 00:02:34,947 --> 00:02:36,294 One of the things I want to ask you 42 00:02:36,294 --> 00:02:39,262 is what kind of a little boy you were, if you recall. 43 00:02:39,262 --> 00:02:42,196 -I had glasses from the time I was in second grade. 44 00:02:42,196 --> 00:02:46,131 I was already sort of a little nerd. 45 00:02:46,131 --> 00:02:48,029 I mean, I think I was real insecure 46 00:02:48,029 --> 00:02:53,138 about being last to be picked for teams. 47 00:02:53,138 --> 00:02:55,658 My mother was really trying to sort of mold me 48 00:02:55,658 --> 00:02:58,039 into something, I suppose. 49 00:03:02,423 --> 00:03:04,770 I mean, the pressure to play Little League 50 00:03:04,770 --> 00:03:07,152 or to go play ball. 51 00:03:07,152 --> 00:03:08,912 I mean, I was really more interested in doing 52 00:03:08,912 --> 00:03:11,260 silly creative things like inventing a club 53 00:03:11,260 --> 00:03:14,539 or arranging some sort of club house. 54 00:03:14,539 --> 00:03:16,575 -And you were the eldest of how many? 55 00:03:16,575 --> 00:03:18,508 -Of four. 56 00:03:18,508 --> 00:03:21,028 Yeah, after me, they had a girl, 57 00:03:21,028 --> 00:03:22,443 and then after two years had another girl, 58 00:03:22,443 --> 00:03:26,758 and my third sister was born when I was 12 years old. 59 00:03:30,382 --> 00:03:31,970 -Kutztown is a small town, 60 00:03:31,970 --> 00:03:34,421 what I would call a very conservative town 61 00:03:34,421 --> 00:03:39,840 in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. 62 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:44,983 I call it sleepy because... 63 00:03:44,983 --> 00:03:50,264 Well, just because there's not much going on. 64 00:03:50,264 --> 00:03:53,957 And that definitely was Keith's opinion of it. 65 00:03:55,856 --> 00:03:58,168 We don't have an exact date on this. 66 00:03:58,168 --> 00:04:00,136 -But we're pretty sure it's third grade. 67 00:04:00,136 --> 00:04:06,073 -"When I grow up, I would like to be an artist in France. 68 00:04:06,073 --> 00:04:08,903 The reason is because I like to draw. 69 00:04:08,903 --> 00:04:14,219 I would get my money from the pictures I would sell. 70 00:04:14,219 --> 00:04:18,327 I hope I will be one. Keith Haring." 71 00:04:18,327 --> 00:04:21,053 I mean, he was always drawing -- drawing in school 72 00:04:21,053 --> 00:04:22,814 when he wasn't supposed to be. 73 00:04:22,814 --> 00:04:24,816 -He would draw on any kind of paper -- 74 00:04:24,816 --> 00:04:29,199 backs of store lists, backs of cards. 75 00:04:29,199 --> 00:04:32,202 Yeah, he was always open to drawing anything. 76 00:04:32,202 --> 00:04:34,135 -And he found a friend in Kermit. 77 00:04:34,135 --> 00:04:36,586 They both liked to draw. 78 00:04:36,586 --> 00:04:40,590 -We grew up in the same town two blocks away from each other. 79 00:04:40,590 --> 00:04:42,247 A real friendship started, I think, 80 00:04:42,247 --> 00:04:46,665 you know, in grade school, and pretty much 81 00:04:46,665 --> 00:04:51,877 that's when we started making things together. 82 00:04:53,638 --> 00:04:56,157 We delivered newspapers on the same street. 83 00:04:56,157 --> 00:04:59,022 We were reading the paper day by day. 84 00:04:59,022 --> 00:05:01,404 There was a lot of crappy stuff going on. 85 00:05:01,404 --> 00:05:05,581 We were talking about it, and it bothered us. 86 00:05:10,068 --> 00:05:14,590 -We will prevail in Vietnam over the communist aggression. 87 00:05:17,696 --> 00:05:22,839 Keith, as long as I knew him, was an activist. 88 00:05:22,839 --> 00:05:25,532 When Nixon ran for president, 89 00:05:25,532 --> 00:05:30,157 we found ourselves running around town with bars of soap, 90 00:05:30,157 --> 00:05:34,368 putting stuff about Nixon on buildings. 91 00:05:34,368 --> 00:05:36,612 In Kutztown, people didn't write 92 00:05:36,612 --> 00:05:38,579 on things that didn't belong to them. 93 00:05:38,579 --> 00:05:40,201 You know, rolling hills and cornfields 94 00:05:40,201 --> 00:05:46,035 and horse and buggies and absolutely no graffiti. 95 00:05:46,035 --> 00:05:50,419 ♪♪ 96 00:05:50,419 --> 00:05:55,734 Keith got interested in that whole Jesus Movement. 97 00:05:55,734 --> 00:06:00,498 What it illustrated to me was a kind of a longing 98 00:06:00,498 --> 00:06:02,638 to be a part of something. 99 00:06:05,468 --> 00:06:08,368 -I guess it was around that time 100 00:06:08,368 --> 00:06:11,612 I discovered smoking pot for the first time. 101 00:06:11,612 --> 00:06:19,620 ♪♪ 102 00:06:19,620 --> 00:06:27,732 ♪♪ 103 00:06:27,732 --> 00:06:30,804 -What do you make of that one, Allen? 104 00:06:30,804 --> 00:06:34,773 -Smoking pot. 105 00:06:34,773 --> 00:06:37,880 We were pretty well convinced he was doing that. 106 00:06:40,123 --> 00:06:43,230 -By this time, I was doing really stupid drugs -- 107 00:06:43,230 --> 00:06:46,716 angel dust with my friend who was making it. 108 00:06:46,716 --> 00:06:55,000 ♪♪ 109 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:58,694 But then I got a job in the arts and crafts center 110 00:06:58,694 --> 00:07:00,281 in Pittsburgh. 111 00:07:00,281 --> 00:07:03,906 Even though I wasn't a student, I proceeded to use 112 00:07:03,906 --> 00:07:08,911 the other facilities around there to do my own work. 113 00:07:08,911 --> 00:07:10,982 One of the most important things in Pittsburgh 114 00:07:10,982 --> 00:07:15,745 was the Carnegie did the Pierre Alechinsky retrospective, 115 00:07:15,745 --> 00:07:17,816 who I had never heard of before. 116 00:07:17,816 --> 00:07:21,164 And the work was so close to what I was doing. 117 00:07:21,164 --> 00:07:22,994 It was the first time that I felt 118 00:07:22,994 --> 00:07:28,240 that I was doing something that was worth something. 119 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:31,105 At 20 years old in 1978, 120 00:07:31,105 --> 00:07:35,144 I was having my first show on my own. 121 00:07:35,144 --> 00:07:37,318 I knew that I had to make the break. 122 00:07:39,355 --> 00:07:42,427 I knew I had to go to New York because that was the only place 123 00:07:42,427 --> 00:07:44,981 where obviously I was going to find the intensity 124 00:07:44,981 --> 00:07:46,569 that I wanted to find, 125 00:07:46,569 --> 00:07:50,642 both in terms of the art world and in terms of my life. 126 00:07:50,642 --> 00:07:53,403 Also, I was realizing little by little 127 00:07:53,403 --> 00:07:57,373 that I had to sleep with men. 128 00:07:57,373 --> 00:08:00,687 I had looked into schools and found this school 129 00:08:00,687 --> 00:08:02,654 which seemed incredibly interesting to me, 130 00:08:02,654 --> 00:08:05,312 which was School of Visual Arts. 131 00:08:05,312 --> 00:08:08,764 -It worried us that he would be exposed to things 132 00:08:08,764 --> 00:08:12,284 that we try to protect children from. 133 00:08:12,284 --> 00:08:15,253 And we would have no control over that. 134 00:08:19,188 --> 00:08:23,537 New York of the late '70s, when I arrived, 135 00:08:23,537 --> 00:08:25,332 when Keith arrived, 136 00:08:25,332 --> 00:08:29,370 It was a place a lot of people were afraid to go to. 137 00:08:29,370 --> 00:08:32,857 It was downtrodden. 138 00:08:32,857 --> 00:08:36,481 -In 1978, it was bankrupt. 139 00:08:36,481 --> 00:08:37,931 -Good evening. New York City 140 00:08:37,931 --> 00:08:42,660 was on the brink of default for most of the day. 141 00:08:42,660 --> 00:08:45,559 -A lot of the buildings were abandoned. 142 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:49,356 It was extremely dangerous. There was a lot of crime. 143 00:08:49,356 --> 00:08:58,952 ♪♪ 144 00:08:58,952 --> 00:09:01,679 But there was a great punk rock music scene 145 00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:03,853 and an underground film scene. 146 00:09:03,853 --> 00:09:06,649 And it was the place to be. 147 00:09:06,649 --> 00:09:08,686 ♪♪ 148 00:09:12,137 --> 00:09:16,003 -Tribute to Gloria Vanderbilt, take one. 149 00:09:18,143 --> 00:09:21,457 -I was in school full-time with a purpose 150 00:09:21,457 --> 00:09:22,700 in this new environment 151 00:09:22,700 --> 00:09:25,012 and was just working. 152 00:09:25,012 --> 00:09:27,187 It was all new to me, and it was all very exciting. 153 00:09:27,187 --> 00:09:31,018 -And you were 20. -And I was 20, yeah. 154 00:09:31,018 --> 00:09:33,814 I sort of met some people very quickly. 155 00:09:33,814 --> 00:09:35,540 Like in my drawing class, 156 00:09:35,540 --> 00:09:38,060 I immediately gravitated to this one girl 157 00:09:38,060 --> 00:09:41,097 who was named Samantha McEwan. 158 00:09:41,097 --> 00:09:45,205 -And he literally sat down, I mean, opposite me 159 00:09:45,205 --> 00:09:47,310 but our knees touching and he just went, 160 00:09:47,310 --> 00:09:50,555 "Can I draw you?" And that was Keith. 161 00:09:50,555 --> 00:09:54,490 -♪ It's the middle of the month, it's happening all over town ♪ 162 00:09:54,490 --> 00:09:55,871 ♪ You know it's got me reeling forward ♪ 163 00:09:55,871 --> 00:09:57,700 ♪ Got me falling to the ground 164 00:09:57,700 --> 00:09:59,564 -I was in the hallway, 165 00:09:59,564 --> 00:10:03,188 and I heard Devo music, 166 00:10:03,188 --> 00:10:08,055 and there's Keith painting himself into a corner 167 00:10:08,055 --> 00:10:09,747 with these black strokes. 168 00:10:09,747 --> 00:10:13,405 And every stroke was to every beat of the music. 169 00:10:15,235 --> 00:10:16,926 And he had painted the entire room 170 00:10:16,926 --> 00:10:18,618 and he was at the very end 171 00:10:18,618 --> 00:10:20,102 and he was standing in the corner 172 00:10:20,102 --> 00:10:23,312 and he was marking his mark and I was like, "Wow." 173 00:10:23,312 --> 00:10:28,075 I said, "This is the reason why I came to New York." 174 00:10:28,075 --> 00:10:31,803 -I think Keith kind of, like, ruled that school 175 00:10:31,803 --> 00:10:35,427 from the time he got there. 176 00:10:35,427 --> 00:10:40,674 -He lived in a tiny apartment on the third or fourth floor. 177 00:10:40,674 --> 00:10:44,298 Huge roaches and plywood floors. 178 00:10:44,298 --> 00:10:48,509 Keith's room was virtually a closet, 179 00:10:48,509 --> 00:10:51,098 but it had, like, a phonograph. 180 00:10:51,098 --> 00:10:55,482 And he ended up playing, like, "Rock Lobster" 181 00:10:55,482 --> 00:10:57,139 like 20 hours in a row 182 00:10:57,139 --> 00:10:59,659 while he would be drawing in the apartment. 183 00:10:59,659 --> 00:11:02,178 -♪ We were at a party 184 00:11:02,178 --> 00:11:04,905 ♪ His ear lobe fell in the deep ♪ 185 00:11:04,905 --> 00:11:07,770 ♪ Someone reached in and grabbed it ♪ 186 00:11:07,770 --> 00:11:12,188 ♪ It was a rock lobster 187 00:11:12,188 --> 00:11:17,228 -No one in the East Village had a television set. 188 00:11:17,228 --> 00:11:22,405 We went out every night. That was our entertainment. 189 00:11:22,405 --> 00:11:25,270 -At nighttime, I'm becoming part of nightclub scene 190 00:11:25,270 --> 00:11:29,447 and then begin to become part of this scene at Club 57, 191 00:11:29,447 --> 00:11:30,966 a Polish church. 192 00:11:30,966 --> 00:11:35,487 In the basement of the church, there was a social hall. 193 00:11:35,487 --> 00:11:37,593 -♪ I want to see you tonight 194 00:11:39,526 --> 00:11:42,805 -We were really kind of bored with the art world 195 00:11:42,805 --> 00:11:45,187 as an elitist place. 196 00:11:45,187 --> 00:11:48,638 It seemed like it was trying harder and harder 197 00:11:48,638 --> 00:11:50,433 to be more and more esoteric 198 00:11:50,433 --> 00:11:54,196 and not want to include the public at large. 199 00:11:56,267 --> 00:11:59,788 -Club 57 was our way of going to Hollywood 200 00:11:59,788 --> 00:12:03,343 without having to go to Hollywood. 201 00:12:03,343 --> 00:12:07,761 That whole spirit of DIY, we're not going to be uptown 202 00:12:07,761 --> 00:12:11,592 groveling at the feet of corporate entities 203 00:12:11,592 --> 00:12:13,733 for their approval to do anything. 204 00:12:13,733 --> 00:12:16,287 We can find another playground. 205 00:12:16,287 --> 00:12:18,013 ♪♪ 206 00:12:18,013 --> 00:12:21,982 -♪ Want to make love to you under the strobe lights ♪ 207 00:12:21,982 --> 00:12:26,400 ♪ Want to make love to you under the strobe lights ♪ 208 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:30,715 ♪ Strobe lights, oh 209 00:12:30,715 --> 00:12:32,234 -What I'm obsessed with at this time 210 00:12:32,234 --> 00:12:34,374 is trying to figure out why I'm an artist 211 00:12:34,374 --> 00:12:38,274 and if I'm an artist, why I'm an artist, 212 00:12:38,274 --> 00:12:41,899 and also becoming aware of and very interested 213 00:12:41,899 --> 00:12:44,073 in what's happening on the streets of New York. 214 00:12:44,073 --> 00:12:47,767 I'm fascinated by the graffiti that I was seeing. 215 00:12:51,253 --> 00:12:54,808 Not only big things on the outside of cars, 216 00:12:54,808 --> 00:12:58,191 but the incredible calligraphy 217 00:12:58,191 --> 00:13:01,366 which was covering the insides of cars. 218 00:13:01,366 --> 00:13:09,133 ♪♪ 219 00:13:09,133 --> 00:13:10,962 -It was to compete with advertising 220 00:13:10,962 --> 00:13:12,550 in a certain regard. 221 00:13:12,550 --> 00:13:15,380 Like, all these companies were just forcing their products 222 00:13:15,380 --> 00:13:16,968 in your face all the time. 223 00:13:16,968 --> 00:13:20,144 It's like we want to force ourselves in people's faces. 224 00:13:22,698 --> 00:13:24,217 -I started to notice him in my neighborhood 225 00:13:24,217 --> 00:13:27,427 in the Lower East Side was he started to come down 226 00:13:27,427 --> 00:13:31,845 to get more acquainted with graffiti writers. 227 00:13:31,845 --> 00:13:34,917 -I felt immediately an affinity to the work 228 00:13:34,917 --> 00:13:38,300 as if I had known it a long time. 229 00:13:42,891 --> 00:13:47,240 This incredible pop cartoon sensibility from kids 230 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:50,933 that had grown up watching cartoons with Technicolor. 231 00:13:52,935 --> 00:13:56,214 The forms seemed very similar in a way 232 00:13:56,214 --> 00:13:58,182 to the kind of drawings that I was doing, 233 00:13:58,182 --> 00:14:00,425 even though I wasn't making letters. 234 00:14:00,425 --> 00:14:02,186 They had the same kind of volumous, 235 00:14:02,186 --> 00:14:03,843 aggressively fluid lines, 236 00:14:03,843 --> 00:14:06,086 which were obviously done really directly 237 00:14:06,086 --> 00:14:10,056 with very little hesitation but just really, really strong. 238 00:14:13,197 --> 00:14:16,372 From the time I was a kid, I had this tremendous guilt 239 00:14:16,372 --> 00:14:19,893 about all the things that white people had done, 240 00:14:19,893 --> 00:14:22,206 you know, from fucking over the Indians 241 00:14:22,206 --> 00:14:25,002 to the whole civil rights movement. 242 00:14:25,002 --> 00:14:28,039 And I felt a much closer affinity 243 00:14:28,039 --> 00:14:30,110 to culture and people of color 244 00:14:30,110 --> 00:14:33,113 than I did to white culture in a way. 245 00:14:33,113 --> 00:14:37,255 -Disenfranchisee youth creating really beautiful, 246 00:14:37,255 --> 00:14:40,051 urgent messages of, like, self identity. 247 00:14:40,051 --> 00:14:42,882 Way before Instagram. 248 00:14:42,882 --> 00:14:45,470 You know, I like to call it Instadamn, 249 00:14:45,470 --> 00:14:49,336 because Instadamn was like, "Damn, look at that." 250 00:14:49,336 --> 00:15:01,003 ♪♪ 251 00:15:01,003 --> 00:15:03,350 -The famed Times Square Show 252 00:15:03,350 --> 00:15:06,008 organized by Collaborative Projects 253 00:15:06,008 --> 00:15:08,010 was the first time that the art world acknowledged 254 00:15:08,010 --> 00:15:11,634 that this underground existed. 255 00:15:11,634 --> 00:15:15,190 -The art world is very unpenetrable at that time. 256 00:15:15,190 --> 00:15:16,985 The velvet ropes are there, and you don't want 257 00:15:16,985 --> 00:15:19,056 just anyone crashing those velvet robes. 258 00:15:19,056 --> 00:15:25,510 -The Times Square extravaganza on 41st Street. 259 00:15:25,510 --> 00:15:27,443 -There was starting to be this whole movement 260 00:15:27,443 --> 00:15:30,377 in New York of people trying to do things 261 00:15:30,377 --> 00:15:33,933 outside of the regular gallery system. 262 00:15:33,933 --> 00:15:35,727 -Lee Quiñones and I did a painting 263 00:15:35,727 --> 00:15:38,006 on the front of the building, 264 00:15:38,006 --> 00:15:41,664 a Fab 5 piece which we spray-painted. 265 00:15:41,664 --> 00:15:43,666 Keith was a big fan of graffiti. 266 00:15:43,666 --> 00:15:48,499 He was watching trains, looking at tags, and things like that. 267 00:15:48,499 --> 00:15:52,054 He had good questions, I had some answers, 268 00:15:52,054 --> 00:15:55,506 and we just became fast friends right away. 269 00:15:55,506 --> 00:16:00,442 -It was really a moment where the uptown culture of graffiti 270 00:16:00,442 --> 00:16:06,137 and rap kind of collided with the punk New Wave aesthetic. 271 00:16:06,137 --> 00:16:09,140 So that was around the time when Keith kind of went "Bing! 272 00:16:09,140 --> 00:16:12,592 I'm going to do this." 273 00:16:12,592 --> 00:16:16,251 -A few days or a few weeks right after the Times Square Show, 274 00:16:16,251 --> 00:16:20,980 I just started doing these new flying saucers... 275 00:16:22,878 --> 00:16:25,605 and these animal figures 276 00:16:25,605 --> 00:16:29,126 which sort of looked like they could have been cows or sheep 277 00:16:29,126 --> 00:16:33,061 or something, but they had very sort of square noses. 278 00:16:33,061 --> 00:16:35,511 They're really roughly, roughly, roughly drawn 279 00:16:35,511 --> 00:16:37,962 because I hadn't done anything figurative 280 00:16:37,962 --> 00:16:39,722 in a really long time. 281 00:16:39,722 --> 00:16:43,588 And out of these were sort of really born 282 00:16:43,588 --> 00:16:47,109 the entire vocabulary that came afterward. 283 00:16:49,077 --> 00:16:51,286 And all of a sudden, it just totally dawned on me, 284 00:16:51,286 --> 00:16:53,012 like, "What am I doing in school?" 285 00:16:53,012 --> 00:16:55,807 I had discovered my own work. 286 00:16:55,807 --> 00:17:00,226 So I decided I was going to have a show. 287 00:17:00,226 --> 00:17:04,264 -The solo show in New York City at P.S. 122 -- 288 00:17:04,264 --> 00:17:07,302 I went over there, and I think Keith was there on his own, 289 00:17:07,302 --> 00:17:09,511 and it was absolutely spellbinding. 290 00:17:09,511 --> 00:17:11,064 I mean, it was really -- 291 00:17:11,064 --> 00:17:13,791 you know, chills went down your spine. 292 00:17:13,791 --> 00:17:15,517 -I had been given the space 293 00:17:15,517 --> 00:17:19,210 only for, I think, a one-month period. 294 00:17:19,210 --> 00:17:21,833 -It became a buzz and everybody wanted to go 295 00:17:21,833 --> 00:17:23,249 and see what was there, you know? 296 00:17:23,249 --> 00:17:26,183 Everybody wanted to go see it. 297 00:17:26,183 --> 00:17:27,770 -And I think that was around the time 298 00:17:27,770 --> 00:17:32,051 when Keith brought Tony to see this work. 299 00:17:32,051 --> 00:17:34,432 -How's that? -Too tight. 300 00:17:34,432 --> 00:17:36,331 I can't turn. 301 00:17:36,331 --> 00:17:37,884 -I'll move around more. -Move here. 302 00:17:37,884 --> 00:17:39,368 Yeah, there's nothing. 303 00:17:39,368 --> 00:17:44,270 -You know, Tony is a very forceful personality. 304 00:17:44,270 --> 00:17:46,582 -I've done shows with Picasso, Bacon, everybody, 305 00:17:46,582 --> 00:17:49,792 and I'm like, "They're like a dead, dead rat." 306 00:17:49,792 --> 00:17:52,519 I know my crap. Please. I know the editors of Vogue. 307 00:17:52,519 --> 00:17:55,764 I know every fucking photographer in the world. 308 00:17:55,764 --> 00:17:57,076 -This is the guy that literally 309 00:17:57,076 --> 00:17:59,630 went into the Museum of Modern Art 310 00:17:59,630 --> 00:18:04,911 with a spray-paint can and painted "Kill lies all" 311 00:18:04,911 --> 00:18:08,328 on the most famous Picasso in the world. 312 00:18:08,328 --> 00:18:10,503 -Why did you mark up that painting like that? 313 00:18:10,503 --> 00:18:13,506 -To tell the truth. -To tell the truth? 314 00:18:13,506 --> 00:18:14,990 What does that mean? 315 00:18:14,990 --> 00:18:17,199 -That means to kill all the myths. 316 00:18:17,199 --> 00:18:20,099 The myths of art. To tell the truth. 317 00:18:20,099 --> 00:18:23,136 -Everyone's like, "Oh, he's the guy. 318 00:18:23,136 --> 00:18:25,794 He's the guy who defaced 'Guernica,' 319 00:18:25,794 --> 00:18:27,830 and he's an art dealer?" 320 00:18:27,830 --> 00:18:30,005 -I would go to the Museum of Art 321 00:18:30,005 --> 00:18:32,490 just primarily to look at "Guernica." 322 00:18:32,490 --> 00:18:37,219 However, the fact that he believed in protest against war 323 00:18:37,219 --> 00:18:39,946 and was committed enough to stand up to what he knew 324 00:18:39,946 --> 00:18:43,708 would be incredible attacks from the art world, 325 00:18:43,708 --> 00:18:45,365 I respected that. 326 00:18:45,365 --> 00:18:47,367 -We went to see the Keith Haring show, 327 00:18:47,367 --> 00:18:52,027 and the animated line was so original and so active 328 00:18:52,027 --> 00:18:53,994 that it immediately caught your attention. 329 00:18:53,994 --> 00:18:56,445 It didn't look school-trained. 330 00:18:56,445 --> 00:18:58,585 It didn't look qualified. 331 00:18:58,585 --> 00:19:00,794 So I grabbed that. 332 00:19:02,658 --> 00:19:04,246 -The other thing that was happening 333 00:19:04,246 --> 00:19:06,973 was that I had started to draw graffiti 334 00:19:06,973 --> 00:19:09,907 for the first time on the streets with marker. 335 00:19:09,907 --> 00:19:12,806 And I started drawing the animal, 336 00:19:12,806 --> 00:19:15,223 which more and more looked like a dog 337 00:19:15,223 --> 00:19:17,535 and kept getting referred to as a dog, 338 00:19:17,535 --> 00:19:20,228 and the person crawling on all fours, 339 00:19:20,228 --> 00:19:22,195 which then the more I drew it 340 00:19:22,195 --> 00:19:24,577 and the more and the proportion of the head got bigger, 341 00:19:24,577 --> 00:19:27,338 the more it got referred to as the baby. 342 00:19:28,926 --> 00:19:31,825 -Amongst the graffiti community, 343 00:19:31,825 --> 00:19:34,103 placement was a significant thing, 344 00:19:34,103 --> 00:19:36,175 and he would place them in unique places. 345 00:19:36,175 --> 00:19:38,453 And there was this little crawling baby. 346 00:19:38,453 --> 00:19:42,250 And I was like, "Yo, that's dope. That's dope." 347 00:19:42,250 --> 00:19:46,254 -One day I enter the subway and see an empty black panel, 348 00:19:46,254 --> 00:19:51,569 which has been put there to cover an old advertisement. 349 00:19:51,569 --> 00:19:54,883 Immediately, I knew that I had to draw on top of this panel. 350 00:19:54,883 --> 00:19:57,575 I mean, it was like a waiting, perfect surface. 351 00:19:57,575 --> 00:20:04,030 I knew that I had to go aboveground and buy chalk. 352 00:20:04,030 --> 00:20:07,102 -Keith was not sure about using spray-paint. 353 00:20:07,102 --> 00:20:09,863 He is very sensitive being white. 354 00:20:09,863 --> 00:20:11,589 He didn't want to be this white guy 355 00:20:11,589 --> 00:20:13,764 coming into a graffiti space 356 00:20:13,764 --> 00:20:16,732 that was largely people of color. 357 00:20:16,732 --> 00:20:20,460 He wanted to be a part of it, but in his own unique way. 358 00:20:23,325 --> 00:20:27,536 -The deficit in the city and the lack of advertisements 359 00:20:27,536 --> 00:20:29,262 maybe at that time made for 360 00:20:29,262 --> 00:20:31,920 a lot of vacancies on those blackboards. 361 00:20:35,026 --> 00:20:37,615 -After the first one, I started seeing them everywhere. 362 00:20:37,615 --> 00:20:42,827 And within days, I knew what I had discovered here. 363 00:20:42,827 --> 00:20:45,071 I could go back down in the subway, you know, 364 00:20:45,071 --> 00:20:47,970 a week later and the drawing would still be there. 365 00:20:50,249 --> 00:20:52,492 Within a week, people would come up to me. 366 00:20:52,492 --> 00:20:54,391 "I saw this other drawing. I saw the drawing. 367 00:20:54,391 --> 00:20:56,013 You're the guy that did the drawing." 368 00:20:56,013 --> 00:20:59,499 Blah, blah, blah. 369 00:20:59,499 --> 00:21:03,262 -He would do over 100 sometimes in one day. 370 00:21:03,262 --> 00:21:06,092 It would be enormously exhausting 371 00:21:06,092 --> 00:21:08,232 to take the train, jump out and do one, another one, 372 00:21:08,232 --> 00:21:09,923 another one, another one, go to next station, 373 00:21:09,923 --> 00:21:11,718 all the way to Harlem, all the way back. 374 00:21:11,718 --> 00:21:14,652 I mean, you'd just be dead. 375 00:21:14,652 --> 00:21:17,034 -You had to create a lot of work 376 00:21:17,034 --> 00:21:21,245 to be seen in a sea of 10,000 subway trains. 377 00:21:23,489 --> 00:21:26,285 Where the train goes by [Imitates trains] 378 00:21:26,285 --> 00:21:28,701 and you're like, "Wow, what was that?" 379 00:21:28,701 --> 00:21:30,323 And it's a blur of color. 380 00:21:30,323 --> 00:21:34,914 But here you got the opportunity to have an arrested audience. 381 00:21:34,914 --> 00:21:36,502 And they're like, "This is a phenomenon. 382 00:21:36,502 --> 00:21:37,503 What's going on?" 383 00:21:39,953 --> 00:21:42,404 -For everybody, I guess. 384 00:21:42,404 --> 00:21:44,233 I mean, I don't get paid to do it. 385 00:21:44,233 --> 00:21:47,133 But I do it down here so lots of people can see it. 386 00:21:47,133 --> 00:21:52,380 -Keith had an inherent need to have a dialogue with people. 387 00:21:52,380 --> 00:21:55,486 And he knew what he was doing, for crying out loud. 388 00:21:55,486 --> 00:21:59,248 He was sending a photographer around to every place 389 00:21:59,248 --> 00:22:03,218 he did the drawing to photograph every drawing. 390 00:22:03,218 --> 00:22:11,916 ♪♪ 391 00:22:11,916 --> 00:22:13,228 -All of a sudden in Times Square 392 00:22:13,228 --> 00:22:17,577 on the main luminescent display, there was Keith, 393 00:22:17,577 --> 00:22:21,788 animation of his figures now on the middle of Times Square. 394 00:22:21,788 --> 00:22:27,035 ♪♪ 395 00:22:27,035 --> 00:22:29,175 -What did you guys think when you saw that? 396 00:22:29,175 --> 00:22:33,697 -We go, "Yay!" It was great, yeah. 397 00:22:37,356 --> 00:22:39,358 -Apart from anything else, I think it was one thing 398 00:22:39,358 --> 00:22:42,775 that he felt his parents would definitely appreciate. 399 00:22:42,775 --> 00:22:46,468 You know, that is impressive. 400 00:22:49,402 --> 00:22:54,027 -I moved in with Samantha, who was Kenny's girlfriend. 401 00:22:54,027 --> 00:22:56,098 But we've become really good friends by this point. 402 00:22:56,098 --> 00:22:59,136 She has found an apartment on Broome Street. 403 00:23:01,483 --> 00:23:06,143 At this point, I'd meet Juan Dubose at St. Marks Baths, 404 00:23:06,143 --> 00:23:08,110 have great sex, and just decide that 405 00:23:08,110 --> 00:23:09,974 this is the right person to me. 406 00:23:09,974 --> 00:23:12,011 He's black. He's really thin. 407 00:23:12,011 --> 00:23:13,426 He's the same size as me. 408 00:23:13,426 --> 00:23:15,117 We decide that he should move in. 409 00:23:15,117 --> 00:23:18,673 And we buy a tent because Samantha has got to walk through 410 00:23:18,673 --> 00:23:20,295 our room to get to the bathroom. 411 00:23:20,295 --> 00:23:26,232 So we had this huge indoor tent so that we have privacy. 412 00:23:26,232 --> 00:23:28,579 And also what is starting to happen for the first time, 413 00:23:28,579 --> 00:23:31,271 people are starting to be interested in buying the work. 414 00:23:31,271 --> 00:23:34,551 They come to the apartment and start to buy things. 415 00:23:34,551 --> 00:23:38,002 This man from London comes to the studio 416 00:23:38,002 --> 00:23:40,695 and buys a group of about 10 drawings. 417 00:23:40,695 --> 00:23:42,524 I mean, it's the first time that I've got 418 00:23:42,524 --> 00:23:44,423 over $1,000 in my hand 419 00:23:44,423 --> 00:23:46,148 and for the first time in my life 420 00:23:46,148 --> 00:23:48,496 realizing that I can live off of being an artist. 421 00:23:50,532 --> 00:23:53,121 -I was sitting at the kitchen table when he came in. 422 00:23:53,121 --> 00:23:54,467 I don't know if I was having lunch or what. 423 00:23:54,467 --> 00:23:57,643 And all of a sudden he reached in his pocket 424 00:23:57,643 --> 00:24:02,786 and he took out some $100 bills and laid them on the table. 425 00:24:02,786 --> 00:24:04,615 And I said, "What's that?" 426 00:24:04,615 --> 00:24:09,482 He said, "Mom, I'm making money on my art." 427 00:24:09,482 --> 00:24:11,104 And I said, "Well, don't you need it? 428 00:24:11,104 --> 00:24:13,141 I know it's expensive to live in the city, 429 00:24:13,141 --> 00:24:16,144 and you need to buy things and you need supplies." 430 00:24:16,144 --> 00:24:20,217 He said, "I'm doing pretty good, Mom, 431 00:24:20,217 --> 00:24:21,874 and I want to start repaying you 432 00:24:21,874 --> 00:24:25,153 for all you've given me over the years." 433 00:24:25,153 --> 00:24:28,225 That's when I realized that 434 00:24:28,225 --> 00:24:31,159 some of the people do like his art. 435 00:24:35,094 --> 00:24:39,581 -I was starting to have dealers sort of fight over me. 436 00:24:39,581 --> 00:24:41,652 Collectors are asking to come to the appointment, 437 00:24:41,652 --> 00:24:43,620 and then they want to haggle over prices 438 00:24:43,620 --> 00:24:46,519 or they're people that you don't even want to talk to them 439 00:24:46,519 --> 00:24:48,728 to begin with because they're sort of creepier and creepier. 440 00:24:48,728 --> 00:24:52,421 Already, they're trying to rip me off for whatever they can. 441 00:24:52,421 --> 00:24:54,458 -At that time, I really told him, 442 00:24:54,458 --> 00:24:57,357 "Keith, I mean, think of doing something that would last. 443 00:24:57,357 --> 00:24:58,807 You know, maybe paintings or something." 444 00:24:58,807 --> 00:25:00,982 "Oh, no, I'm not going to be an old-fashioned painter. 445 00:25:00,982 --> 00:25:02,535 It's not about that." 446 00:25:02,535 --> 00:25:05,434 I said, "You go and find a way that could be new." 447 00:25:07,954 --> 00:25:10,232 -I think it's more important to make 448 00:25:10,232 --> 00:25:11,440 a lot of different things 449 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:13,581 and keep coming up with new images 450 00:25:13,581 --> 00:25:16,480 and things that were never made before 451 00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:20,449 than to do one thing and do it well. 452 00:25:20,449 --> 00:25:25,109 They come out fast, but it's a fast world. 453 00:25:25,109 --> 00:25:27,629 -When he had a show, we went, and... 454 00:25:27,629 --> 00:25:30,011 -There weren't many there that were dressed like us 455 00:25:30,011 --> 00:25:31,875 or that were as quiet as us 456 00:25:31,875 --> 00:25:33,393 or didn't understand what was going on. 457 00:25:33,393 --> 00:25:36,258 -We were definitely the oldest there, probably. 458 00:25:36,258 --> 00:25:39,503 -Yeah. -We weren't there too long. 459 00:25:39,503 --> 00:25:40,746 -No. 460 00:25:40,746 --> 00:25:43,300 -There was every type of person. 461 00:25:43,300 --> 00:25:45,854 People who would never go to an art gallery opening, 462 00:25:45,854 --> 00:25:47,511 they were there. 463 00:25:47,511 --> 00:25:51,619 -We got homeys from the streets, Lower East Side, 464 00:25:51,619 --> 00:25:54,138 black and Puerto Rican people partying. 465 00:25:54,138 --> 00:25:55,899 You know, it was a different world. 466 00:25:55,899 --> 00:25:57,556 So when those white folks 467 00:25:57,556 --> 00:25:59,627 that just went to the regular art world things 468 00:25:59,627 --> 00:26:02,768 would show up, they'd be, like, blown away. 469 00:26:02,768 --> 00:26:04,148 -I can't get over it. 470 00:26:04,148 --> 00:26:06,357 -I'm from the South. I'm a Southern painter. 471 00:26:06,357 --> 00:26:08,187 Marvelous. -Thank you. 472 00:26:08,187 --> 00:26:09,844 -Haring has become a hot property. 473 00:26:09,844 --> 00:26:12,018 They ooh and they ahh. 474 00:26:12,018 --> 00:26:13,606 -Downstairs is unbelievable. 475 00:26:13,606 --> 00:26:15,988 I want to buy a few of these little wooden things. 476 00:26:15,988 --> 00:26:18,542 -And they pay plenty. 477 00:26:18,542 --> 00:26:20,061 Within the first few days of the show, 478 00:26:20,061 --> 00:26:23,409 about $250,000 worth of his pieces sold. 479 00:26:23,409 --> 00:26:26,930 Not bad for a 24-year-old kid from Kutztown. 480 00:26:26,930 --> 00:26:29,104 -Literally, it was packed. 481 00:26:29,104 --> 00:26:31,900 No one had ever seen an art opening 482 00:26:31,900 --> 00:26:36,698 in the established art world like this. 483 00:26:36,698 --> 00:26:39,977 All of a sudden we were like, "Oh, we're big boys now. 484 00:26:39,977 --> 00:26:41,600 We're, like, in the big boys world." 485 00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:45,534 And we started making big boy paintings. 486 00:26:45,534 --> 00:26:49,677 ♪♪ 487 00:26:49,677 --> 00:26:54,474 -When the great Wall Street bull market began in 1982, 488 00:26:54,474 --> 00:26:58,306 it was one of the markers of New York being different, 489 00:26:58,306 --> 00:27:01,758 of New York having a kind of manic self-confidence. 490 00:27:01,758 --> 00:27:08,696 ♪♪ 491 00:27:08,696 --> 00:27:11,906 -Just a sense of it's okay to make money. 492 00:27:11,906 --> 00:27:17,221 In fact, it's okay to mainly think about making money. 493 00:27:17,221 --> 00:27:18,982 -There was a generation in art world, 494 00:27:18,982 --> 00:27:22,571 first of all, that was supposed to be aloof 495 00:27:22,571 --> 00:27:26,403 from all those things that suddenly young folks 496 00:27:26,403 --> 00:27:29,889 are diving in head first, awash in dollars. 497 00:27:29,889 --> 00:27:31,408 There was a big party going on, 498 00:27:31,408 --> 00:27:33,479 and it was studded with famous people 499 00:27:33,479 --> 00:27:35,170 and the want-to-be-famous. 500 00:27:35,170 --> 00:27:38,277 And then bonafide stars like Keith. 501 00:27:38,277 --> 00:27:39,865 -There are starting to be offers 502 00:27:39,865 --> 00:27:42,488 for exhibitions all over the world. 503 00:27:42,488 --> 00:27:45,422 -[ Speaking Japanese ] 504 00:27:45,422 --> 00:27:48,149 -The demand for the work and the way that I was working 505 00:27:48,149 --> 00:27:50,599 and the whole sort of graffiti performance aspect 506 00:27:50,599 --> 00:27:53,913 made it possible for this whirlwind tour now 507 00:27:53,913 --> 00:27:55,950 of going from place to place. 508 00:27:55,950 --> 00:27:57,676 -Haring got plenty of publicity, 509 00:27:57,676 --> 00:28:00,609 and West German television pictures of him working 510 00:28:00,609 --> 00:28:02,059 were seen in East Germany. 511 00:28:02,059 --> 00:28:05,614 -Keith was an amazing person to watch paint. 512 00:28:05,614 --> 00:28:07,789 I did it many times. 513 00:28:07,789 --> 00:28:10,136 -People were very charmed by him 514 00:28:10,136 --> 00:28:12,691 because he was such a young spirit 515 00:28:12,691 --> 00:28:16,073 and he was so American. 516 00:28:19,180 --> 00:28:22,252 He really represented something. 517 00:28:22,252 --> 00:28:25,220 You know, this youthful spirit and energy 518 00:28:25,220 --> 00:28:27,498 in the sneakers and the jeans and being gay 519 00:28:27,498 --> 00:28:29,777 and hanging out and going to clubs. 520 00:28:29,777 --> 00:28:35,990 -[ Speaking German ] 521 00:28:35,990 --> 00:28:41,305 -He really was treated like he was a rock star. 522 00:28:41,305 --> 00:28:43,514 -♪ Shoot me with your love 523 00:28:43,514 --> 00:28:50,314 ♪♪ 524 00:28:50,314 --> 00:28:52,903 -Sometime right in this time, 525 00:28:52,903 --> 00:28:55,975 I begin for the first time to go to Paradise Garage. 526 00:28:55,975 --> 00:28:58,288 I may have never been the same since. 527 00:28:58,288 --> 00:29:03,396 ♪♪ 528 00:29:03,396 --> 00:29:05,985 -At that point, we were going to the Paradise Garage, 529 00:29:05,985 --> 00:29:11,301 which was a big gay disco on the West Side 530 00:29:11,301 --> 00:29:16,064 with the greatest sound system ever known to man. 531 00:29:18,653 --> 00:29:22,208 -It was so hot inside just from dancing that people were, 532 00:29:22,208 --> 00:29:25,177 you know, only when shorts and little outfits and things 533 00:29:25,177 --> 00:29:28,283 and sweating, and the music was phenomenal. 534 00:29:30,389 --> 00:29:32,391 -We went every Saturday. 535 00:29:32,391 --> 00:29:36,015 And there was no alcohol served at this club, 536 00:29:36,015 --> 00:29:38,880 so everyone was on drugs. 537 00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:44,265 It was 3,000 black people on drugs with Keith and I. 538 00:29:46,992 --> 00:29:49,580 -Many people are on hallucinogenic drugs. 539 00:29:49,580 --> 00:29:54,723 It's sort of a communal, elevated spiritual experience. 540 00:29:54,723 --> 00:29:57,796 -We smoked pot like cigarets. 541 00:29:57,796 --> 00:30:02,386 And that's not counting the mescaline and the acid 542 00:30:02,386 --> 00:30:05,631 and the psilocybin mushrooms 543 00:30:05,631 --> 00:30:08,220 and the part that they never play up enough 544 00:30:08,220 --> 00:30:12,051 in, like, the Keith Haring story is the drugs. 545 00:30:12,051 --> 00:30:17,091 I always think that a lot of Keith's vibrations 546 00:30:17,091 --> 00:30:23,304 around everything that he drew was kind of psychedelic. 547 00:30:23,304 --> 00:30:26,928 -On the corner of Houston Street and the Bowery, 548 00:30:26,928 --> 00:30:29,206 where many derelicts and bums hang out, 549 00:30:29,206 --> 00:30:31,588 I walked past this wall almost every day 550 00:30:31,588 --> 00:30:34,177 on my way to go to the studio. 551 00:30:34,177 --> 00:30:36,213 -I wasn't proclaiming it, but people were saying 552 00:30:36,213 --> 00:30:40,114 the amber walls all belong to Lee in New York. 553 00:30:40,114 --> 00:30:42,461 So he out of respect and out of the generosity 554 00:30:42,461 --> 00:30:45,774 and out of the just the sweetness that he had 555 00:30:45,774 --> 00:30:48,260 as a person asked me, 556 00:30:48,260 --> 00:30:52,333 "Lee, can I have permission to paint that wall?" 557 00:30:52,333 --> 00:30:55,232 I was like, "Keith, I don't want to paint it 558 00:30:55,232 --> 00:30:58,649 because it has a crack in it." 559 00:30:58,649 --> 00:31:01,445 -I do this mural in two days or something, 560 00:31:01,445 --> 00:31:03,965 do this amazing, incredible wall. 561 00:31:03,965 --> 00:31:05,311 I mean, it's glowing. 562 00:31:05,311 --> 00:31:06,934 The fluorescent paint is so bright 563 00:31:06,934 --> 00:31:09,384 and the sun hits this wall, and it's just this incredible 564 00:31:09,384 --> 00:31:12,077 sort of monolith standing on the thing. 565 00:31:14,424 --> 00:31:18,186 -It was outrageous how powerful it was. 566 00:31:20,257 --> 00:31:23,226 -I was formally introduced to this painting here 567 00:31:23,226 --> 00:31:25,331 yesterday when the brother painted it. 568 00:31:25,331 --> 00:31:27,644 We love it. He alright with us. 569 00:31:27,644 --> 00:31:29,232 But we don't drink that wine and wash some windows 570 00:31:29,232 --> 00:31:30,336 and keep right on painting. 571 00:31:30,336 --> 00:31:32,166 Keep it up and don't erupt. 572 00:31:32,166 --> 00:31:35,445 Don't stop the chocolate crew and the gang. 573 00:31:37,723 --> 00:31:40,381 -From painting vacant ad spaces in subways 574 00:31:40,381 --> 00:31:43,418 to being flown around the world is quite a leap. 575 00:31:43,418 --> 00:31:48,113 -I went to Australia to do several projects. 576 00:31:48,113 --> 00:31:50,839 The National Gallery of Victoria was a huge building 577 00:31:50,839 --> 00:31:52,980 with a glass front on it. 578 00:31:52,980 --> 00:31:56,052 I was going to do a painting on this wall. 579 00:31:58,502 --> 00:32:00,815 It turned into this major controversy 580 00:32:00,815 --> 00:32:02,748 and even being on the front page 581 00:32:02,748 --> 00:32:07,373 because people there were seeing it as Aboriginal. 582 00:32:07,373 --> 00:32:09,928 But I was doing what I had been doing in New York 583 00:32:09,928 --> 00:32:13,793 and in America and all over the world. 584 00:32:13,793 --> 00:32:18,108 It just coincidentally was the same kind of line drawing 585 00:32:18,108 --> 00:32:20,041 as Aboriginals. 586 00:32:20,041 --> 00:32:23,700 Well, the final result was that about a month after I had left, 587 00:32:23,700 --> 00:32:26,668 the center panel ended up getting a shot put through it. 588 00:32:26,668 --> 00:32:29,188 And so the whole thing had to be removed. 589 00:32:33,503 --> 00:32:35,954 In London, I painted Bill T. Jones, 590 00:32:35,954 --> 00:32:38,473 and painting him, every inch of his body 591 00:32:38,473 --> 00:32:42,822 from head to toe to the tip of his foreskin, 592 00:32:42,822 --> 00:32:46,550 and then photographed him and all these sort of poses. 593 00:32:48,897 --> 00:32:51,728 -I never felt exploited by Keith. 594 00:32:51,728 --> 00:32:56,250 What was an article in Rolling Stonemagazine 595 00:32:56,250 --> 00:33:01,255 talking about his Bwana syndrome. 596 00:33:01,255 --> 00:33:05,293 Who is this white guy surrounded by all these brown people? 597 00:33:05,293 --> 00:33:08,365 ♪♪ 598 00:33:11,748 --> 00:33:15,096 -At this point, I've made a sufficient amount of money, 599 00:33:15,096 --> 00:33:18,065 which I have a sufficient amount of guilt about 600 00:33:18,065 --> 00:33:20,550 and want to sort of share with my friends. 601 00:33:20,550 --> 00:33:25,210 For my birthday, I do my very first party of life. 602 00:33:25,210 --> 00:33:28,799 -May 16th. Paradise Garage, 1984. 603 00:33:28,799 --> 00:33:32,493 And this is one of those handkerchiefs like the gay boys 604 00:33:32,493 --> 00:33:35,358 liked to wear in their back pockets. 605 00:33:35,358 --> 00:33:38,878 Keith's parties were so exuberant. 606 00:33:38,878 --> 00:33:44,608 People were young, healthy, alive. 607 00:33:44,608 --> 00:33:45,954 Fantastic bodies. 608 00:33:45,954 --> 00:33:47,887 It was like something you might imagine, 609 00:33:47,887 --> 00:33:51,788 you know, the ancient ritual where they've already pulled 610 00:33:51,788 --> 00:33:55,585 the heart out of the slaves and then now the sun has come up 611 00:33:55,585 --> 00:33:58,381 and it's coming through Stonehenge just perfectly. 612 00:33:58,381 --> 00:33:59,934 And now we're gonna celebrate. 613 00:33:59,934 --> 00:34:06,492 It was very pagan, and Keith just embodied that. 614 00:34:06,492 --> 00:34:08,770 -We were inviting just really gorgeous people to this party. 615 00:34:08,770 --> 00:34:11,739 You know, from street kids to Calvin Klein. 616 00:34:11,739 --> 00:34:14,466 Anyone who was anyone at that time in New York 617 00:34:14,466 --> 00:34:16,951 had found a way to get an invitation to this party. 618 00:34:16,951 --> 00:34:18,504 Diana Ross showed up, 619 00:34:18,504 --> 00:34:21,507 which for the Garage was the ultimate highlight. 620 00:34:21,507 --> 00:34:24,372 And I had just painted a jacket for Madonna, 621 00:34:24,372 --> 00:34:25,615 and I've asked her if she'll sing there. 622 00:34:25,615 --> 00:34:27,962 And she agrees that she'll sing there. 623 00:34:27,962 --> 00:34:29,722 They didn't take to Madonna. 624 00:34:29,722 --> 00:34:34,831 It's like, "Who is this trashy white girl that can't sing?" 625 00:34:34,831 --> 00:34:38,179 -And we said, "Oh, you know, she doesn't have a great voice." 626 00:34:38,179 --> 00:34:39,663 But then he said, 627 00:34:39,663 --> 00:34:42,287 "Andy says she's gonna be the biggest thing." 628 00:34:42,287 --> 00:34:44,289 And we said, "Oh, sure, sure." 629 00:34:44,289 --> 00:34:46,256 Well, Andy was right. 630 00:34:48,534 --> 00:34:52,297 -He got well known, and then he got around Andy. 631 00:34:52,297 --> 00:34:57,060 And then everyone started having one name that was around Keith. 632 00:34:57,060 --> 00:35:01,754 It was, you know, Brooke and Andy and Grace, 633 00:35:01,754 --> 00:35:04,654 Yoko and Michael. 634 00:35:04,654 --> 00:35:09,831 Having his stuff taken seriously 635 00:35:09,831 --> 00:35:11,557 by the art world was one thing, 636 00:35:11,557 --> 00:35:15,009 but getting to hobnob with everybody on Hollywood Squares 637 00:35:15,009 --> 00:35:18,012 was like a whole nother level of fame 638 00:35:18,012 --> 00:35:21,740 that he really relished. 639 00:35:21,740 --> 00:35:26,434 -All of a sudden, he went from being this kid from Kutztown 640 00:35:26,434 --> 00:35:30,576 to hanging out with Farrah Fawcett. 641 00:35:30,576 --> 00:35:32,268 -Juan was my lover during this time, 642 00:35:32,268 --> 00:35:34,580 but I was having more opportunity, 643 00:35:34,580 --> 00:35:36,237 and especially with more traveling, 644 00:35:36,237 --> 00:35:39,827 more notoriety, and more boys around me all the time, 645 00:35:39,827 --> 00:35:44,659 I was already starting to become less and less true to Juan, 646 00:35:44,659 --> 00:35:46,213 really, and it was hard 647 00:35:46,213 --> 00:35:49,181 because I was constantly surrounded by temptation. 648 00:35:49,181 --> 00:35:50,665 -There are some people who felt that, 649 00:35:50,665 --> 00:35:53,910 you know, once he got famous, he abandoned them. 650 00:35:53,910 --> 00:35:58,052 There was something about Andy's sense of art 651 00:35:58,052 --> 00:36:01,676 as a business that really appealed to Keith 652 00:36:01,676 --> 00:36:07,303 and which, you know -- that philosophy did play a role 653 00:36:07,303 --> 00:36:09,926 in Keith's decision to open the Pop Shop. 654 00:36:09,926 --> 00:36:11,824 -They call it the Pop Shop. 655 00:36:11,824 --> 00:36:13,412 From T-shirts to posters, 656 00:36:13,412 --> 00:36:15,449 pins and pendants to watches, 657 00:36:15,449 --> 00:36:18,176 it's the place to pick up, well, 658 00:36:18,176 --> 00:36:21,593 just about anything from pop-art sensation Keith Haring. 659 00:36:23,491 --> 00:36:27,909 -So the Pop Shop was a reaction to 660 00:36:27,909 --> 00:36:32,362 "You can only have my work if you have thousands of dollars." 661 00:36:32,362 --> 00:36:37,781 It was "You can buy a T-shirt and be part of what I'm doing." 662 00:36:37,781 --> 00:36:40,888 -I knew that I was going to get a lot of criticism for it, 663 00:36:40,888 --> 00:36:42,338 but I also knew 664 00:36:42,338 --> 00:36:44,719 that it was the thing the work was calling for 665 00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:46,549 and that it had to become. 666 00:36:46,549 --> 00:36:50,000 -It never made lots of money. Never made money. 667 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:51,588 -What was the point of it, then? 668 00:36:51,588 --> 00:36:53,418 -It was everybody could have art. 669 00:36:53,418 --> 00:36:55,005 Everybody could be enjoying something. 670 00:36:55,005 --> 00:37:00,045 -But what happened was Keith was accused of selling out. 671 00:37:00,045 --> 00:37:01,667 -Do you think the Pop Shop 672 00:37:01,667 --> 00:37:04,567 will in any way interfere with Keith Haring, the artist? 673 00:37:04,567 --> 00:37:06,465 -I mean, to me, it's all one and the same thing. 674 00:37:06,465 --> 00:37:08,122 I mean, to me, the Pop Shop is 675 00:37:08,122 --> 00:37:10,193 part of Keith Haring, the artist. 676 00:37:12,299 --> 00:37:14,335 -He was not somebody who said, 677 00:37:14,335 --> 00:37:16,303 "Oh, never mind, I'm not going to read those reviews. 678 00:37:16,303 --> 00:37:17,787 They don't matter." 679 00:37:17,787 --> 00:37:21,584 He read everything and, you know, it upset him. 680 00:37:26,313 --> 00:37:28,625 -Things had seriously changed already in New York 681 00:37:28,625 --> 00:37:32,457 because of this new horror of AIDS. 682 00:37:32,457 --> 00:37:35,529 And little by little, it's building up in the news. 683 00:37:35,529 --> 00:37:37,669 Calling this thing, like, gay cancer. 684 00:37:37,669 --> 00:37:40,913 And people around me started to get sick. 685 00:37:40,913 --> 00:37:42,950 The first person that I knew that died of AIDS 686 00:37:42,950 --> 00:37:44,503 was Klaus Nomi, 687 00:37:44,503 --> 00:37:48,680 who had been around from Club 57 days. 688 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:54,789 -You would be with your friend, a vivacious, cherubic, 689 00:37:54,789 --> 00:37:56,308 20 year old. 690 00:37:56,308 --> 00:37:59,622 And then you would not see them for a couple weeks 691 00:37:59,622 --> 00:38:01,071 and you run into them in the street 692 00:38:01,071 --> 00:38:03,902 and it would be like, "What the fuck?" 693 00:38:03,902 --> 00:38:07,837 You know, all of a sudden, they looked like a skeleton. 694 00:38:07,837 --> 00:38:10,046 And it would happen that fast. 695 00:38:10,046 --> 00:38:11,703 -At that point, if you got a bruise, 696 00:38:11,703 --> 00:38:13,187 you thought you had K.S. 697 00:38:13,187 --> 00:38:15,707 You thought you were going to die as a gay man. 698 00:38:15,707 --> 00:38:22,438 And then there was the stigma and the shame. 699 00:38:22,438 --> 00:38:27,166 It was so shameful, AIDS, at that point. 700 00:38:27,166 --> 00:38:29,445 -There were doctors who were so frightened 701 00:38:29,445 --> 00:38:32,068 that they wouldn't even let patients in their office. 702 00:38:32,068 --> 00:38:36,383 They just would send them down to my office to see them. 703 00:38:36,383 --> 00:38:41,215 -We got very myopic about creating, doing things 704 00:38:41,215 --> 00:38:42,630 and doing things and doing things 705 00:38:42,630 --> 00:38:48,464 I think in a lot of ways to avoid the trauma 706 00:38:48,464 --> 00:38:52,951 of seeing friends die right and left. 707 00:38:52,951 --> 00:38:55,678 -He said yes to everything. 708 00:38:55,678 --> 00:38:59,613 -I painted Grace Jones for two live performances. 709 00:39:02,201 --> 00:39:05,308 And I went to Marseilles in France 710 00:39:05,308 --> 00:39:08,967 to paint a backdrop for a Roland Petit ballet. 711 00:39:08,967 --> 00:39:13,074 Did some graphics for some heart pills in Germany. 712 00:39:13,074 --> 00:39:16,733 Designed four watches for Swatch. 713 00:39:16,733 --> 00:39:20,358 Every trip coordinated exactly to leave 714 00:39:20,358 --> 00:39:22,774 after a Saturday night at Paradise Garage 715 00:39:22,774 --> 00:39:25,466 so that I don't miss any of my Garage time. 716 00:39:27,779 --> 00:39:30,402 Don't let your brush sit inside the cup 717 00:39:30,402 --> 00:39:32,749 'cause it can get knocked over. 718 00:39:32,749 --> 00:39:36,684 I'm approached by this group called CityKids. 719 00:39:36,684 --> 00:39:42,000 We come up with this brainstorm of an idea of making a banner 720 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:43,484 and letting kids come 721 00:39:43,484 --> 00:39:47,902 and paint their own things inside of my lines. 722 00:39:47,902 --> 00:39:49,387 After the three-day period, 723 00:39:49,387 --> 00:39:51,285 about 1,000 high-school kids had come to this thing. 724 00:39:51,285 --> 00:39:53,632 It was this big, major event. 725 00:39:55,323 --> 00:39:56,911 -The buses just kept unloading, 726 00:39:56,911 --> 00:39:59,362 coming from all five boroughs in New York City, 727 00:39:59,362 --> 00:40:01,675 bringing kids from everywhere. 728 00:40:01,675 --> 00:40:04,125 I had never really been out of Brooklyn. 729 00:40:04,125 --> 00:40:05,230 I didn't know people from Queens. 730 00:40:05,230 --> 00:40:07,197 I didn't know people from the Bronx. 731 00:40:07,197 --> 00:40:09,061 When you come from poverty, 732 00:40:09,061 --> 00:40:11,823 sometimes you think that that's all there is. 733 00:40:11,823 --> 00:40:14,688 Every single person that you see represented 734 00:40:14,688 --> 00:40:17,794 on this banner had a voice. 735 00:40:17,794 --> 00:40:21,315 But somebody feeling like your statement was important at 16, 736 00:40:21,315 --> 00:40:24,525 that changed everything. 737 00:40:24,525 --> 00:40:26,251 -There was this thing that children were comfortable 738 00:40:26,251 --> 00:40:28,356 with me, and I was comfortable with them. 739 00:40:28,356 --> 00:40:29,737 If you're not sure, you come to me and ask me, 740 00:40:29,737 --> 00:40:32,706 "Should they be painting with red or green here?" 741 00:40:32,706 --> 00:40:36,503 I knew that they can sort of sense honesty in the drawing. 742 00:40:39,229 --> 00:40:43,924 -"Without her, there'd be no me, no you, no liberty. 743 00:40:43,924 --> 00:40:45,443 Keyon." 744 00:40:48,169 --> 00:40:51,656 That was my statement. 1986. 745 00:40:55,314 --> 00:40:56,626 I told you I couldn't draw. 746 00:40:56,626 --> 00:40:59,249 [ Laughs ] 747 00:40:59,249 --> 00:41:01,631 We got to see life different. 748 00:41:01,631 --> 00:41:03,944 And it gave you the opportunity to go, 749 00:41:03,944 --> 00:41:06,878 "Hey, there's more to life than just my everyday. 750 00:41:06,878 --> 00:41:10,537 Let's see what else is out here. Let's see what else we can do." 751 00:41:12,228 --> 00:41:14,402 I got invited by Keith Haring to go up. 752 00:41:14,402 --> 00:41:16,439 He was doing a mural in Harlem. 753 00:41:16,439 --> 00:41:18,441 So now it's this world-famous -- 754 00:41:18,441 --> 00:41:20,685 The "Crack is wack" mural, right? 755 00:41:20,685 --> 00:41:25,310 It was a nice, like, sunny summer afternoon day. 756 00:41:25,310 --> 00:41:28,416 All I can remember is, "This is taking forever. 757 00:41:28,416 --> 00:41:31,937 I think this is wack." 758 00:41:31,937 --> 00:41:34,250 -It's a sight you can't miss. 759 00:41:34,250 --> 00:41:35,665 If you live in the neighborhood 760 00:41:35,665 --> 00:41:38,599 or you pass 128th Street on the FDR Drive, 761 00:41:38,599 --> 00:41:41,291 you may have even wondered who did that and why. 762 00:41:41,291 --> 00:41:43,811 Graffiti artist Keith Haring did it. 763 00:41:43,811 --> 00:41:47,159 -'86 was sort of the beginning of the crack scene 764 00:41:47,159 --> 00:41:48,747 sort of starting in New York. 765 00:41:48,747 --> 00:41:51,163 The whole thing was that it was quickly addictive. 766 00:41:51,163 --> 00:41:52,579 It's a really terrible addiction. 767 00:41:52,579 --> 00:41:53,856 It's much different than heroin addiction. 768 00:41:53,856 --> 00:41:56,652 -Did you try it? -Yeah, I've tried everything. 769 00:42:01,104 --> 00:42:05,764 -When he would have been 27, 770 00:42:05,764 --> 00:42:09,354 Keith was showing regularly in galleries all over the world, 771 00:42:09,354 --> 00:42:13,738 and he had his first solo museum show 772 00:42:13,738 --> 00:42:18,466 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux. 773 00:42:18,466 --> 00:42:22,643 And that show then would go on to the Stedelijk in Amsterdam. 774 00:42:22,643 --> 00:42:27,510 I mean, these were major, major, major museums. 775 00:42:27,510 --> 00:42:29,685 -I still haven't had an exhibition in a museum 776 00:42:29,685 --> 00:42:33,412 in the United States of any kind of substance. 777 00:42:33,412 --> 00:42:37,520 -Keith sort of started to develop a Bosch-like world. 778 00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,488 Really kind of intense and heavy. 779 00:42:40,488 --> 00:42:42,249 We were like, "What the fuck is wrong 780 00:42:42,249 --> 00:42:44,354 with these American curators? 781 00:42:44,354 --> 00:42:46,184 How come they don't get it," you know? 782 00:42:46,184 --> 00:42:48,496 He was combated by critics 783 00:42:48,496 --> 00:42:52,535 for having a style that resembled illustration. 784 00:42:52,535 --> 00:42:56,021 You could say, "Yeah, but think about what he was illustrating." 785 00:42:57,678 --> 00:43:01,544 You know, all their belief systems were being challenged. 786 00:43:03,822 --> 00:43:07,619 -It upset him that people just didn't get it. 787 00:43:07,619 --> 00:43:10,484 They didn't get that he thought art was for everybody. 788 00:43:10,484 --> 00:43:13,176 They didn't get that he felt that art should be 789 00:43:13,176 --> 00:43:15,731 as accessible as possible. 790 00:43:18,181 --> 00:43:19,873 -During the summer, 791 00:43:19,873 --> 00:43:24,567 I started to notice trouble with my breathing. 792 00:43:24,567 --> 00:43:26,776 Was inspecting every day and waiting 793 00:43:26,776 --> 00:43:28,536 to see the purple splotch. 794 00:43:28,536 --> 00:43:32,471 And I found a spot on my leg. 795 00:43:32,471 --> 00:43:35,060 So I went to a doctor and found out that it was, 796 00:43:35,060 --> 00:43:36,683 in fact, K.S., 797 00:43:36,683 --> 00:43:40,272 meaning that now I fit exactly the classifications 798 00:43:40,272 --> 00:43:42,965 of actually having AIDS. 799 00:43:42,965 --> 00:43:45,243 Now it was gonna happen to me, 800 00:43:45,243 --> 00:43:48,936 and now I had to deal with it. 801 00:43:48,936 --> 00:43:51,698 -Well, he had no delusions that he was gonna be cured 802 00:43:51,698 --> 00:43:54,942 or that the disease was going to change or anything. 803 00:43:54,942 --> 00:43:57,738 He knew it was progressive. He knew he was dying. 804 00:43:57,738 --> 00:43:59,498 -You know, it's like you have to go on. 805 00:43:59,498 --> 00:44:01,017 You, like, get yourself together, 806 00:44:01,017 --> 00:44:03,813 and you realize that this is not the end right there 807 00:44:03,813 --> 00:44:05,435 and that there's other things. 808 00:44:05,435 --> 00:44:07,058 And you've got to continue and you've got to figure out 809 00:44:07,058 --> 00:44:11,303 how you're going to deal with it and confront it and face it. 810 00:44:11,303 --> 00:44:15,514 I haven't heard from Juan Dubose for a long time. 811 00:44:15,514 --> 00:44:18,241 His mother calls me and tells me that he died. 812 00:44:20,105 --> 00:44:22,383 Telling people that Juan died 813 00:44:22,383 --> 00:44:26,353 is in a way telling people that I'm going to die. 814 00:44:26,353 --> 00:44:27,906 -It was very sad. 815 00:44:27,906 --> 00:44:30,357 There was an open casket, but Keith is looking at it 816 00:44:30,357 --> 00:44:35,742 and saying, "Well, I'm next. Soon to be me there," you know. 817 00:44:35,742 --> 00:44:38,572 He loved classical music in the end of his life. 818 00:44:38,572 --> 00:44:42,576 He listened to that all the time very loud. 819 00:44:42,576 --> 00:44:45,096 -Once Keith got his diagnosis, 820 00:44:45,096 --> 00:44:48,202 he basically just ramped up everything. 821 00:44:48,202 --> 00:44:52,137 He just worked and worked and worked and worked and worked. 822 00:44:52,137 --> 00:44:55,002 He created so much art. 823 00:44:55,002 --> 00:44:56,901 ♪♪ 824 00:44:56,901 --> 00:44:59,869 -[ Singing operatically ] 825 00:44:59,869 --> 00:45:07,359 ♪♪ 826 00:45:07,359 --> 00:45:10,535 -He traveled like crazy. 827 00:45:10,535 --> 00:45:14,815 ♪♪ 828 00:45:14,815 --> 00:45:17,438 -You know, once he got the diagnosis, 829 00:45:17,438 --> 00:45:19,233 he pretty much put himself out there. 830 00:45:19,233 --> 00:45:25,757 He used his art to create attention and awareness. 831 00:45:25,757 --> 00:45:30,141 -[ Chanting ] Racist, sexist, anti-gay, go away. 832 00:45:30,141 --> 00:45:34,697 Racist, sexist, anti-gay, go away. 833 00:45:34,697 --> 00:45:36,803 -If you don't have money in this city, you can't -- 834 00:45:36,803 --> 00:45:38,425 you know, it's an expensive disease. 835 00:45:38,425 --> 00:45:41,808 People that can't get money to get treatment here, 836 00:45:41,808 --> 00:45:45,432 to get whatever you have, people just give up. 837 00:45:45,432 --> 00:45:49,816 -[ Chanting ] Racist, sexist, anti-gay, go away. 838 00:45:49,816 --> 00:45:54,510 -We always struggled raising money and rarely had 839 00:45:54,510 --> 00:45:57,927 more than $10,000 in the bank. 840 00:45:57,927 --> 00:46:02,345 And he would come up and he'd say, "Peter, 841 00:46:02,345 --> 00:46:06,280 I really want to help with this action financially. 842 00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:10,250 Could you stop by my studio? 843 00:46:10,250 --> 00:46:13,805 I kind of have a cash business these days." 844 00:46:13,805 --> 00:46:16,566 And I'd walk from my East Village apartment 845 00:46:16,566 --> 00:46:19,742 down to Soho. 846 00:46:19,742 --> 00:46:22,262 He'd go off to his little knapsack thing 847 00:46:22,262 --> 00:46:25,575 that he'd have in the corner and he'd come back to me 848 00:46:25,575 --> 00:46:28,682 and hand me this huge wad of cash. 849 00:46:30,511 --> 00:46:33,963 -And I have always been an incredibly energetic person. 850 00:46:33,963 --> 00:46:38,312 And the hardest thing for me is to slow down that process. 851 00:46:38,312 --> 00:46:40,798 Yeah, I believe that you live while you're living 852 00:46:40,798 --> 00:46:43,801 and you live as fully and as completely as you can. 853 00:46:43,801 --> 00:46:46,493 And you deal with a future as it comes to you 854 00:46:46,493 --> 00:46:49,323 and as it's doled out to you. 855 00:46:49,323 --> 00:46:52,361 -You know, he's certainly had some days 856 00:46:52,361 --> 00:46:54,881 that were very, very dark. 857 00:46:54,881 --> 00:46:57,884 And certainly, you know, if you look at the work 858 00:46:57,884 --> 00:47:01,266 that he created in those last couple of years, 859 00:47:01,266 --> 00:47:03,648 there is a great deal of darkness in them. 860 00:47:03,648 --> 00:47:06,858 -It became the hell and horror of it all. 861 00:47:06,858 --> 00:47:11,104 Like some of the last paintings he did were really, like, 862 00:47:11,104 --> 00:47:12,691 all the beauty is destroyed. 863 00:47:12,691 --> 00:47:14,797 All the happiness of it all is gone. 864 00:47:14,797 --> 00:47:20,838 And now it's just a -- it's kind of like hell. 865 00:47:20,838 --> 00:47:23,841 -Fan mail starting to pour in from this Rolling Stonearticle 866 00:47:23,841 --> 00:47:27,568 in which I have bared my entire life story. 867 00:47:27,568 --> 00:47:29,018 At this point, I hadn't even 868 00:47:29,018 --> 00:47:31,503 told my parents that I was sick yet. 869 00:47:31,503 --> 00:47:35,404 -There was hysteria and fear. 870 00:47:35,404 --> 00:47:36,888 So many people had it, 871 00:47:36,888 --> 00:47:40,167 yet nobody was coming out and talking about it, 872 00:47:40,167 --> 00:47:43,722 especially nobody famous. 873 00:47:43,722 --> 00:47:46,656 It was very brave of him to do that. 874 00:47:47,692 --> 00:47:48,969 -♪ Dance 875 00:47:48,969 --> 00:47:51,144 ♪ Come on 876 00:47:51,144 --> 00:47:53,318 ♪ Yeah 877 00:47:53,318 --> 00:47:56,494 -Even in the state he was, 878 00:47:56,494 --> 00:48:01,292 he was celebrating life up to the very end. 879 00:48:01,292 --> 00:48:05,710 -♪ Come on, come on, yeah 880 00:48:05,710 --> 00:48:08,816 -In fact, he was celebrating it a bit too much. 881 00:48:08,816 --> 00:48:10,749 Like I would say, "Keith, 882 00:48:10,749 --> 00:48:13,718 I would rather think it's a good idea if you've maybe 883 00:48:13,718 --> 00:48:17,653 ate healthy, had some of this carrot juice, 884 00:48:17,653 --> 00:48:19,793 instead of doing a line of coke," 885 00:48:19,793 --> 00:48:21,381 and he'd be like, "Fuck that. 886 00:48:21,381 --> 00:48:27,214 "No, I'm just going to do this 887 00:48:27,214 --> 00:48:34,014 with the candle burning at both ends, bright, 888 00:48:34,014 --> 00:48:37,673 and not wait for anything." 889 00:48:37,673 --> 00:48:40,262 -♪ Come on, come on, come on 890 00:48:40,262 --> 00:48:42,057 ♪ Unh 891 00:48:42,057 --> 00:48:44,335 ♪ Whoo 892 00:48:47,959 --> 00:48:51,411 -You know, I never had any sort of delusions about living 893 00:48:51,411 --> 00:48:53,585 until I was going to be an old person, 894 00:48:53,585 --> 00:48:55,173 but there's works that I created 895 00:48:55,173 --> 00:48:58,107 that are going to stay here forever. 896 00:48:58,107 --> 00:49:00,213 There's thousands of real people, 897 00:49:00,213 --> 00:49:02,629 not just museums and curators, 898 00:49:02,629 --> 00:49:05,666 that have been affected and inspired 899 00:49:05,666 --> 00:49:08,635 and taught by the work that I've done. 900 00:49:08,635 --> 00:49:10,809 So the work is going to live on long past 901 00:49:10,809 --> 00:49:12,639 when I'm going to be here. 902 00:49:14,882 --> 00:49:18,541 [ Cheers and applause ] 903 00:49:18,541 --> 00:49:25,410 -Keith in January of 1990 attended the inauguration 904 00:49:25,410 --> 00:49:29,483 of Mayor Dinkins in New York City. 905 00:49:29,483 --> 00:49:31,830 And the inauguration was held outside. 906 00:49:31,830 --> 00:49:37,664 And he contracted a very, very difficult chest cold. 907 00:49:37,664 --> 00:49:41,875 -It was just like Keith was the Eveready Bunny, 908 00:49:41,875 --> 00:49:45,637 and then the Eveready battery just died. 909 00:49:48,468 --> 00:49:53,473 This is the last drawing by Keith. 910 00:49:53,473 --> 00:49:54,922 He struggled so bad. 911 00:49:54,922 --> 00:49:58,409 He really wanted to show that he could still do it. 912 00:49:58,409 --> 00:50:02,447 And it was really hard for everyone. 913 00:50:06,417 --> 00:50:09,558 -The nurse woke my parents to tell them that. 914 00:50:09,558 --> 00:50:10,800 It was in the middle of the night. 915 00:50:10,800 --> 00:50:12,423 They said his kidneys are failing, 916 00:50:12,423 --> 00:50:18,325 and that means there's not much time. 917 00:50:18,325 --> 00:50:22,295 And my parents got into bed with him 918 00:50:22,295 --> 00:50:27,472 and held him for hours until he died. 919 00:50:29,992 --> 00:50:33,375 -These are some of Keith's designs. 920 00:50:33,375 --> 00:50:35,549 There you can see the baby. 921 00:50:37,620 --> 00:50:42,142 -They're a little bit flashy and on the loud side, 922 00:50:42,142 --> 00:50:43,488 so I don't wear them much. 923 00:50:43,488 --> 00:50:45,870 I'm not a flashy, loud guy. 924 00:50:47,768 --> 00:50:51,807 -There was times when he drew in the pictures. 925 00:50:51,807 --> 00:50:53,878 He did not sign his name, 926 00:50:53,878 --> 00:50:59,711 but he would draw a baby in the lower right-hand corner. 927 00:50:59,711 --> 00:51:03,129 He always said that the baby was a symbol of life. 928 00:51:03,922 --> 00:51:08,065 ♪♪ 929 00:51:08,065 --> 00:51:09,721 -So we move to the Keith Haring, 930 00:51:09,721 --> 00:51:12,207 and we start the bidding here at $3.2 million, 931 00:51:12,207 --> 00:51:15,002 $3.5 million, $3.8 million already. 932 00:51:15,002 --> 00:51:16,487 $3.8 million. 933 00:51:16,487 --> 00:51:17,660 -♪ Watch out, y'all 934 00:51:17,660 --> 00:51:20,042 ♪ Here comes the boogie 935 00:51:20,042 --> 00:51:21,802 -$4 million. $4 million. 936 00:51:21,802 --> 00:51:24,460 Looking for $4.2 million. 937 00:51:29,707 --> 00:51:31,295 $4.5 million. 938 00:51:31,295 --> 00:51:33,055 $4.7 million I'll take for the Haring. 939 00:51:33,055 --> 00:51:35,678 ♪♪ 940 00:51:35,678 --> 00:51:37,508 -♪ Never thought I'd 941 00:51:37,508 --> 00:51:39,579 ♪ Find the special one 942 00:51:39,579 --> 00:51:42,168 ♪ Now you're here 943 00:51:42,168 --> 00:51:47,587 -At $4,700,000 for the Haring. All done. 944 00:51:49,865 --> 00:51:59,668 ♪♪ 945 00:51:59,668 --> 00:52:09,471 ♪♪ 946 00:52:09,471 --> 00:52:19,584 ♪♪ 947 00:52:19,584 --> 00:52:23,105 7 O0 C1 948 00:52:24,002 --> 00:52:25,625 [clap] 949 00:52:26,246 --> 00:52:29,076 ♪♪ 950 00:52:29,076 --> 00:52:32,010 ♪♪ 951 00:52:32,010 --> 00:52:34,565 You're watching PBS. 952 00:52:34,599 --> 00:52:35,117 ♪♪ 953 00:52:35,221 --> 00:52:37,878 You're watching PBS.