This early Untitled painting has a similar feel to the most interesting subway graffiti drawings...like friend and confidant, Jean Michael Basquiat, their work formalizes street art...I wonder about the status of graffiti in contemporary society...there is something fashionable about it, something base and too self promotional...Keith Haring's works are contemporary, yet reference the past...they are smarter, better organized and pushed art and street together into one harmonious note...This work is symbolic...simplified...decorative...abstract...curious...balanced and intelligent...the line work on the black background, creating visual vibration and shock, it is contained through the centered, focal figurative image...in the tradition of religious paintings of Byzantium...each mark and symbol has a significance...the context is more broken down and simplified, to get to the heart of the concept quickly...a need for immediacy and clarity...like an advertisement on the street, but with a greater level of sensitivity...there is something so unique and at the same time familiar about Harings work...these are masterpieces in a common language...
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