Style Imitating Art: Tree of Life by Keith Haring

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Terri of MeadowTree Style, and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join! You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

The Inspiration Artwork

The inspiration artwork was curated by me. You can read why I chose this work here.

The Artwork

Tree of Life by Keith Haring (Acrylic on canvas tarpaulin with metal grommets, 1985)

About the Artist: Keith Haring

Born on May 4, 1958, in Reading, Pennsylvania, Keith Haring was raised with his three younger sisters, Kay, Karen, and Kristen, in nearby Kutztown, Pennsylvania, by their parents Joan and Allen Haring. (Side note: I attended Kutztown University for two semesters in pursuit of my Masters in Mental Health Counseling so I am very familiar with the artist’s hometown.)

Allen Haring was an engineer and an amateur cartoonist, influencing his son’s artistic interests from a very young age. During Keith’s early childhood, he and his father would spend time producing creative drawings together. In addition to his father, Keith’s earliest artistic influences include Walt Disney, Dr. Seuss, Charles Schulz, and the Looney Tunes characters from The Bugs Bunny Show.

As a child, Keith and his family attended the United Church of Christ, which led to his involvement in the Jesus Movement during his teenage years. He would later hitchhike across the United States selling tee shirts featuring his own Grateful Dead and anti-Nixon designs. (Well, that helps tie my last art pick, Feeding in the Light by Jerry Garcia, to this one, doesn’t it?)

Keith Haring graduated from Kutztown Area High School in 1976 and moved onto study commercial art at Pittsburgh’s Ivy School of Professional Art. He abandoned these studies in 1978 after losing interest and becoming inspired to focus on his own art after reading The Art Spirit (1923) by Robert Henri.

Influenced by various contemporary artists at this time, Keith began to hone his signature style of large images featuring writing and characters and incorporating the public into his works. He had his first significant one-man exhibition in 1978 at Pittsburgh’s Center for the Arts, moving to New York City’s Lower East Side later that same year to study painting at the School of Visual Arts. During this time, he also worked as a busboy at a nightclub, studied semiotics, and experimented with video and performance art.

Between 1980 and 1981, Keith Haring began to gain public attention for his graffiti art in the New York City subway system where he created white chalk drawings on the black backgrounds of unused advertisement backboards in subway stations. The artist considered the subway his “laboratory” for experimentation where he could create his art in this “free space.” In 1981, Haring had his first solo exhibitions around New York City.

His big breakthrough came in January 1982, when he was the first of twelve artists chosen by the Public Art Fund to display work on the computer-animated Spectacolor billboard in Times Square. By 1984, he had gained international celebrity status, and by 1986, he had painted murals all over the world. In April 1986, Haring opened Pop Shop in SoHo as an effort to make his art more accessible. He was often criticized for commercializing his work in this way. He responded to this criticism by saying, “I could earn more money if I just painted a few things and jacked up the price. My shop is an extension of what I was doing in the subway stations, breaking down the barriers between high and low art.” After his death, the Pop Shop remained open with profits going directly to The Keith Haring Foundation.

Haring attempted to make his work more relatable to the viewing public by featuring figures that lacked any discernible age, race, ethnicity, gender, or other identifiers. By the mid-1980s, his work also became much more reflective of socio-political themes such as the anti-Apartheid movement, AIDS awareness, and the drug epidemic that was sweeping America.

Between 1982 and 1989, Haring’s works were featured in more than 100 solo and group art exhibitions and he produced over 50 public works of art for dozens of organizations like charities, hospitals, day care centers, and orphanages. He was openly gay and often used his work to promote safe sex. In the fall of 1988, he was diagnosed with AIDS and shifted the message of his work to AIDS awareness and activism.

On February 16, 1990, Keith Haring died at the age of 31 in his Greenwich Village apartment from AIDS-related complications. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in a field near Bowers, Pennsylvania, seven miles south of his hometown of Kutztown.

About the Art: Tree of Life

Tree of Life is a large acrylic on canvas tarpaulin with metal grommets that measures 120 x 144 inches (10 x 12 feet or 3 x 3.7 meters). Haring created this painting in 1985 to honor his young friend and fellow artist, Maria Bonnier Dahlin, who died in a car accident that year at the age of 20. The painting is meant to burst with positivity as a celebration of life and friendship.

The back of the original work is signed and dated with the following inscription: “SEPT. 7-1985 IN MEMORY OF MARIA DAHLIN K. Haring 1985 N.Y.C.” 

Here is a description of the work by Christie’s because I can’t describe it any better than this…

“Epic in scale and ambition, Tree of Life, 1985, was created at the peak of Keith Haring’s tragically short but intensely dynamic life and career. Extending over three and half metres in height, Tree of Life takes on near biblical proportions in its depiction of this fantastical scene. A collision of punk and pop, Haring injects contemporary energy into this decidedly urban celebration that fuses established religious subjects and traditional art historical references with his distinct modern day street art culture. Emanating from whirling branches, a plethora of life explodes in the forms of dancing bodies, as if an explosion of knowledge. Underneath the tree, four fully-formed spotted yellow figures stand in exaltation. With an economy of line, the day-glow green branches appear to hum against the fuchsia and in a carnival of rhythmic pattern. ‘See, when I paint, it is an experience that, at its best, is transcending reality, ’Haring said, explaining that this dimension was reflected also in his state of mind while working. ‘When it is working, you completely go into another place, you’re tapping into things that are totally universal, of the total consciousness, completely beyond your ego and your own self. That’s what it’s all about’ (K. Haring, quoted in D. Sheff, ‘Keith Haring: An Intimate Conversation,’ in Rolling Stone, August 1989, reproduced at www.haring.com, [accessed 25 May 2014]). Tree of Life has been exhibited at Ludwig Forun für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Triennale de Milano, Milan, and Dexia Banque Internationale à Luxembourg.

Christie’s

Tree of Life was last purchased by an anonymous buyer from Sotheby’s New York on November 14, 2007, for just under 1.8 million dollars.

Resources/References:

• Keith Haring: Wikipedia
• The Keith Haring Foundation
• Tree of Life, 1985
• King & McGaw: Tree of Life
• Christie’s: Tree of Life by Keith Haring

About My Outfit Inspired by Tree of Life

Right away, I had the idea to create a color blocked outfit in the bright cheerful hues represented in Tree of Life, pink, green, yellow, and red, accessorized with black to reflect the bold black lines that outline the images in the painting.

As I was brainstorming, I remembered this neon green stick figure tee shirt circa 1989. Yes, this tee shirt is straight out of the ’80s right as Keith Haring was at the height of his career. I was 15 years old and I was very familiar with the artist at this time. It is very likely that I bought myself this tee shirt because the graphic was so reflective of Keith Haring’s style which I absolutely adored. I recall very specifically wearing this shirt during a family vacation to Disney World in 1990.

I have no idea why I held onto this shirt for so long but eventually it transitioned to my kids’ smock for art class in school. First it was Archie’s (his name is on the back), then it was Ralph’s (his name is on the front), and now I have reclaimed it for myself once again, cutting off both of their names only to make it fit me better and with a more ‘80s vibe!

My initial plan was to layer the tee over this bright pink maxi dress, but when it came time to get dressed and take photos, I wasn’t feeling very much in a dress mood. So I switched to these bright coral colored pants instead which I realize are too big and might have to go out in the donation pile. I am hesitant to get rid of them quite yet, however, because they are the only brightly colored trousers that have survived my recent closet purge.

Although the color wasn’t exactly on point with the painting (the pink dress was a much closer match), I think they are close enough for creative interpretation. My shirt and pants covered the colors of the tree and the background. To bring in the yellow and red of the dancing human forms, I wore yellow socks and a dark red belt. Black accessories including my Doc Martens (you can’t get much more ’80s style than Doc Martens) and a black ribbon choker (also so very ‘80s) complete my look with my green beaded earrings made by dear Michelle of My Bijou Life. By the way, be sure to check out her SIA outfit today. It is so fun! We both had the idea of bright color blocking, but hers is even brighter and better!

As an afterthought, I grabbed one of my tree of life necklaces. I have a few necklaces that depict the tree of life because it is one of my favorite symbols ever. This long silver tassel one was thrifted a few years ago and it is one my favorites that I wear often.

And that’s a wrap. My 1980’s Keith Haring Tree of Life inspired outfit! It was fun to wear but I cracked under the judgment of my 11 year old when he looked at me funny and asked with a certain one, “Why are you wearing that?” I took my photos and then changed into something equally bright and cheerful which I will share with you all tomorrow.

Be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of the painting as well as Terri’s take on it. If you want to join us and be featured in my gallery post on Wednesday, September 7, 2022, please send me your photos by Tuesday, September 6, 2022, at 10:00 p.m. EST and then check back for the group gallery of art inspired looks.

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Linking up with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Pants-Old Navy / Tee Shirt-Just Old / Bralette-Torrid / Socks-Sock Dreams / Boots-Doc Martens (Amazon) / Belt-Old / Necklace-Thrifted / Earrings-Made by Michelle of My Bijou Life