In 1985 Keith haring started a mural campaign that started in San Francisco stemming across the world. His first and largest indoor mural was photographed by Frank Ditto Author of Lets paint w/ Keith Haring. These photos and the mural were out of public view for over twenty years. Now at the DeYoung Exhibition starting in November Ditto was asked to exhibit his photos as a celebration of Haring in San Francisco and the work he contributed to the bay which is now gone! Sold to N.Y. and Milan. Then at the last minute Ditto’s photos were pulled from the exhibition!
What does this mean exactly? Simply this the big art exodus to Europe that is now returning to the states via New York and California is being usurped by New York to LA and by passing San Francisco altogether. San Franciscans will go to the Keith Haring Exhibit to see posters of NY murals and not their own SF mural that was purchased by New York via this exhibition. Obviously all the art funding will go that direction too as other art exhibits of SF’s will be squelched by NY just as the SF mural will be. Julian Cox one of the curators of the show who will only put a small Polaroid of the mural in the SF show confirmed this. In fact all of SF’s Keith Haring artwork will be squelched from the show generously over shadowed by the same rhetoric of N.Y. Once again repeating itself as NY always does and always has. This is NY selling NY by simultaneously hiding SF from SF the same old East Coast West Coast Thang!
This is only the beginning.
Recently stated in the SF Weekly
Keith Haring's artwork is instantly recognizable — it always has been — and this major exhibit promises to make Haring's artistic motivations more understandable. Haring's concerns were wide-ranging, touching on all aspects of social inequality and injustice. Haring's early career was devoted to upending the prevailing art system. As he noted in a journal entry, he tried "to expose the system and politics of the art world by breaking as many rules as possible while at the same time building a stronger and stronger position as an artist in the world." That he accomplished many times over.
People all over as well as San Franciscan’s alike will be thrilled to see the photographs That San Franciscans can be proud of especially now that their mural is GONE! J. Weiel sold the mural in 2010 to some collectors in NY for a song. The city of SF at the time did not have the funds available to purchase the mural as the state of California was broke and on the verge of bankruptcy, a real buyers market not a sellers market. Suddenly never before seen by the public Photos of the murals inception turn up. These are photos of Keith Haring painting the mural and telling the kids stories shot by photographer /artist Frank Ditto. These in fact are the only photos of Haring shot on a Zeiss lens out side of Robert Mapplethorpe’s session with Haring, for those of you who are unfamiliar with lenses Zeiss lenses are the best lenses in the professional world of photography ever manufactured their quality is unsurpassed and is why they are even the leading lenses in motion pictures. Ditto presented these photos to Julian Cox the curator of the Keith Haring Exhibition to open this November 8, 2014. Cox was amazed at the perfect time capsule Ditto’s montage created of the Mural which can be seen at frankditto.com, and an important part of San Francisco history to be represented in the following show now that San Francisco has lost their mural. At Cox’s insistence Ditto obliged to exhibit the photos at the museum at no charge other than a family museum pass to see the show. As Cox stated that this was something for the people of San Francisco and Ditto being a San Franciscan willingly agreed. Ditto had also inquired if Cox knew of any exhibitions of Jean Micheal Basquiat? Cox had mentioned that his partner and co creator of the exhibition Dieter Buchart's. Burchart’s is also an author and co-author of several Keith Haring books and Books on the 80’s art movement the other co-author being …………the collector who acquired the mural. Ditto contacted,,,,Dieter Buchart's,who resides in Vienna asked if Buchart's.would know of any current exhibition curration's of Basquiat. Through the Fine Arts Foundation Ditto is in touch with retires who are willing to loan their works out in order to supplement their incomes…Dieter Buchart informed Ditto that Buchart. himself was personally involved with such exhibitions and that he would be willing to exhibit the works owned by the pool of retirees, whom Ditto represented pay for shipping and insurance but with out any kind of residual or fee for the loan of exhibitions. The retirees associated with the Fine Arts Foundation saw no point in loaning their collections to anyone who would profit from an exhibition and count them out. As a result Ditto did not continue with the Basquiat curration. Only to find out a month later that Julian Cox via…Dieter Buchart dropped Ditto From the Haring Exhibition reneging on their previous contract with out any notice. Just Dropped Ditto From the Haring exhibition cold. By doing so, once again dropping San Francisco from their mural, which is the centerpiece and fulcrum of the Keith Haring Exhibition in San Francisco in the first place. A San Francisco Keith Haring Exhibition without the San Francisco Keith Haring mural. The very embodiedment of the article in SF Weekly. Ditto was dropped from the Haring exhibition simply out of a spiteful move due to another exhibition completely unrelated except for the fact it is the same curators.
This is more of a blow to the San Franciscans who will be attending the exhibition excluding their mural or the photos of their mural, which San Franciscans are proud of in the first place. The Mural is over 8’ high and 77’ long it is the first and largest indoor mural Haring created before his campaign across the world. The mural actually is encrypted with depictions of how to make it as an artist by breaking the rules, specifically for the enjoyment of children, now a historical landmark both for the art world as well as San Francisco. This encryption has been deciphered and written into a children’s book by Ditto titled “Lets Paint w/ Keith Haring” Haring invited Ditto to stop by and shoot the mural at it’s inception, and mentored Ditto about the art world as he was painting a mural of it. Ditto’s interest at the time was for his wife a well-known San Franciscan artist in the Neo Expressionist movement being pioneered at the time. She had a Half a block exhibition at Powell and market in the entire J.C.Penny building. Now the Nordstrom rack. Haring drew a portrait of Frank and Julie who later turned up as one of his works sometimes knows as the wedding picture.
San Franciscans would like to see their mural and know something about it. About defying the art world and recreating it at the same time, as Haring tried "to expose the system and politics of the art world by breaking as many rules as possible while at the same time building a stronger and stronger position as an artist in the world as to quote the SF Weekly. Nothing does that more than Harings Mural or Ditto’s photos of the mural’s inception or Ditto’s book lets paint w/ Keith Haring. Which Julian Cox and Dieter Burkhardt have dropped. If you would like to see the photos reinstated email the director of the De Young museum at .................... museumambassadors@famsf.org......SF Arts Commision…(415) 252-2590...and The San Francisco mayors office at …….. mayoredwinlee@sfgov.org…Mayor office San Francisco https://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php Jerry Brown Governor of California, and let them know how you feel! Keep San Francisco’s Art in San Francisco.
Don’t let San Francisco get thrown under the bus in the next up coming Art explosion by having it’s art and culture absorbed squelshed and hidden by New York and L.A. This Keith Haring exhibition is only the beginning, Keith Haring was about making it with out playing by the rules about how art belongs to the people not the elite.
this major exhibit promises to make Haring's artistic motivations more understandable. Haring's concerns were wide-ranging, touching on all aspects of social inequality and injustice. Haring's early career was devoted to upending the prevailing art system. As he noted in a journal entry, he tried "to expose the system and politics of the art world by breaking as many rules as possible while at the same time building a stronger and stronger position as an artist in the world." That he accomplished many times over.
