Keith Was Here (1958-1990)

The first time I had my professional headshot done, by the Salmieris in Manhattan, I went to their walk-up studio in Chinatown. On the door of the apartment below theirs was a red image of a crawling baby, which I recognized immediately as the work of Keith Haring. I asked how it got there, and Michele replied: Keith lived here. He was our neighbor. That was in 1995, five years after he had died. The apartment, which I didn’t get to see, was covered, from floor to ceiling, with his work: the stove, the fridge, the doors, the floor — all of it.

I heard that the landlord eventually painted it all over, destroying not just millions of dollars worth of art (owned by Keith’s estate), but also a perfect specimen of his existence; magnificent proof that Keith was here.

I just looked up his data on Astrodatabank, the most accurate public data source, and was very happy that it was there and has a good rating (technically a B rating, which means from biography / autobiography, though no birth certificate in hand). His bio describes him as an “American artist, a pop and graffiti artist who moved from a small section of Americana into the hip and hectic New York scene before burning himself out on the fast lane of the good life by age 31.”

He died of AIDS, back in the day when it was a guaranteed death sentence: no drug cocktails, less known about the syndrome, less evolved human immune response: it took many great men from every walk of life. AIDS is generally not just the reaction to a virus; it’s a lifestyle syndrome, and Haring was in the perfect position to fall prey.

“The fast lane” is basically immune suppressing; which leaves one vulnerable; and so on and on.

First a bit about the chart, then some more from his bio on Astrodatabank. A Taurus with Leo rising, born just before noon (in standard time), he has the perfect chart not only for stardom, but enduring fame. I say this because the fixed signs create an enduring legacy (he had his Moon in one, as well). Leo rising shines out, and the Taurus Sun at noon booms over the airwaves with integrity and a message rooted in values. Haring shifted how we see art; as any good artist does, he taught us to see a new way — among other gifts, to see “the writing on the wall” as the truly creative matter that it is.

Thanks to Keith we see graffiti as something beautiful, or at least potentially so. We hardly remember a time when it was merely viewed as an obnoxious annoyance.

He had Venus and Mars in Pisces, reflective of his sensitive, passionate nature; these planets were in interesting house placements: Mars in the 8th is that sex drive, which (in the spirit of the 8th) turned to his demise. Venus in the 9th is the spiritual dimension of his sexuality, which was the theme of his work and the message of which spread all over the world.

His Moon was in the last degree of Scorpio, void of course, showing a serious struggle with boundaries. In the last degree of Scorpio it will have all the flavor and charisma of the Scorpio Moon, be way too close to the edge for most people to handle with any semblance of order or organization. As if to emphasize the point, it’s square Pluto: dark, passionate, introspective, focused on power and feeling rather doomed.

Keith was one of those AIDS deaths that got a lot of attention, and may have saved some lives. However, times have changed yet again and a safer sex message needs to resound in the “gay” and “straight” communities. Sorry ladies, sorry gents, the pill and its cousins don’t do it, and indeed make things worse: they discourage use of condoms, the most basic form of protection, and mess with your immune and endocrine systems all the while.

Here is some more of his story, from Astrodatabank.

Raised in the small town of Kutztown PA, Keith Haring was the son of a communications supervisor and a housewife; three younger sisters. From the time he was a boy, he loved drawing and knew, by his teens, that he wanted to be an artist. His drawings were often abstract, with shapes and lines that flowed into forms. During school, he hung out with druggies and trouble-makers until he realized both his independence and his homosexuality. Finding his own way, he wrote, “I was happy, because I suddenly found that my art was blossoming along with my sexuality.”

Keith gave his first solo show at age 20 before moving to New York City to enter the School of Visual Arts. The chaotic stream of the New York art world energized him and he entered into feverish activity, immersing himself in the club scene, the punk-rock music scene and especially in the graffiti scene, which was blossoming on the streets and in the subway system of the city. By 1980, he evolved his own graffiti style and signature.

Haring was a natural for “performance art.” He did pieces involving poetry and video’s of himself acting-out various demented charades. He supported himself by working as a nightclub busboy, organizer of underground art shows, and as a gallery assistant. Critics called his first New York Show, October 1982, dazzling for its inventiveness and energy, and Haring suddenly became part of the city’s avant-garde. Almost immediately, Keith was invited to exhibit in Europe and Japan.