Street art lovers, it’s time to get unbelievably hype: the National Gallery of Victoria has confirmed that it will be playing host to an exhibition of works by Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, two of the most iconic American artists of the 1980s.
The NGV says the exhibition will be an unprecedented world premiere, and will “offer new and fascinating insights into their unique visual languages and reveal, for the first time, the many intersections between their lives, practices and ideas.”
Melburnians should already be familiar with Haring’s work, as he’s the artist responsible for the iconic mural, featuring Haring’s oft-repeated dancing figures, that adorns the wall of the former Collingwood Technical School in Collingwood. The 1984 work remains on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Basquiat’s work recently made headlines when his painting “Untitled” (1982) was sold for US$110.5 million in 2017, making it the most expensive American artwork ever sold at auction.
The NGV exhibition, titled Crossing Lines, will include rare archival pieces, sculptures, journals, photographs, paintings and more documenting Haring and Basquiat’s lives and work in the New York art scene of the 1980s.
The ABC says that the pair’s work is both characterised by “strong line work, symbolism and a collage-like juxtaposition of images“, and deal with “race, materialism, religion, AIDS and gay rights“.
Crossing Lines opens at the NGV in Melbourne on December 1.
