I am intrigued with the shapes people choose as their symbols to create a language. There is within all forms a basic structure, an indication of the entire object with a minimum of lines that becomes a symbol. This is common to all languages, all people, all times.
The public needs art, and it is the responsibility of a ’self-proclaimed artist’ to realize the public needs art, and not to make bourgeois art for the few and ignore the masses. … 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. I am merely a middleman trying to bring ideas together.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art should be accessible to everyone and open to individual interpretation, rather than limited to a select few.
In this quote, Keith Haring emphasizes the importance of art being a collective experience rather than an exclusive one. He argues that artists have a responsibility to create work that resonates with the public and invites diverse interpretations, rather than conforming to traditional standards meant for an elite audience. Haring sees himself as a facilitator in the artistic process, where the viewer actively shapes the meaning of the artwork, highlighting the collaborative nature of art and its impact on society.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During an art exhibition, one might use this quote to discuss the importance of accessibility in art.
More from Keith Haring
All quotes →The act of creation is a kind of ritual. The origins of art and human existence lie hidden in this mystery of creation. Human creativity reaffirms and mystifies the power of 'life.
When it is working, you completely go into another place, you're tapping into things that are totally universal, completely beyond your ego and your own self. That's what it's all about.
Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic.
I don't think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.
I think you have to control the materials to an extent, but it's important to let the materials have a kind of power for themselves; like the natural power of gravity, if you are painting on a wall, it makes the paint trickle and it drips; there is no reason to fight that.
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You like it, that's all, whether it's a landscape or abstract. You like it. It hits you. You don't have to read it. The work of art-sculpture or painting-forces your eye.