#PickoftheWeek | Author Discusses Her New Book on Keith Haring
BY QEDC It's In Queens
Keith Haring was an artist and anti-AIDS activist whose graffiti-like murals — i.e. Crack is Wack — popped up throughout NYC during the 1980s. And of course, he had a notable exhibition history at Queens Museum.
Amy Raffel, the Andrew Mellon Interpretation Research Fellow at QM, will discuss her book, Art and Merchandise in Keith Haring’s Pop Shop, via a special QM event on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 6 pm. She will also talk about Haring’s relationship with QM, followed by a conversation with Assistant Curator Lindsey Berfond and an open Q&A session.
The Zoom event is free, but registration is requested.
During the height of his popularity, Haring ran his Pop Shop, where he created and sold merchandise — i.e. tote bags, tee shirts — that displayed prints of his internationally acclaimed art. Raffel’s new book centers on the ideas that led to the Pop Shop, which opened in Soho in 1986. Haring said he simply wanted to make his work accessible to as many people as possible, but he was highly criticized for “selling out” and commercializing his art.
Raffel is an art historian and museum interpreter whose doctoral dissertation was on the NYC art scene in the 1980s and the Pop Shop. (She got her Ph.D. in Contemporary Art History from The Graduate Center at the City University of New York.) At QM, she works across departments to research, develop, and implement art programs to all ages.
Image: QM