Growing #5 1988

Curator: Here we have "Growing #5" crafted in 1988 by Keith Haring using print and acrylic paint. What's your initial take on this burst of color? Editor: Honestly, pure kinetic joy. It feels like a visual shout of celebration, doesn't it? A playground on canvas. Curator: Absolutely, there's that iconic energy. Look closely at how Haring uses thick black lines to define these figures; notice the contours create this kind of visual vibration. And the way the colours pop—the pure reds, yellows, and blues—creates such a stark contrast to how shapes repeat and interplay against each other. What do you make of it? Editor: Well, those colors and those radiating lines, the geometric undercurrent…it's almost hieroglyphic, a language made of shape and color. But also reminds me of urban art—a kind of symbology speaking from the streets. Is it really just about simple "growing" up? Curator: Well, considering Haring’s socio-political engagement in the late '80s, it's perhaps too simplistic to only see growth. Given Haring's activism about, for example, HIV, maybe this is a defiant cry of life, survival, regeneration amid intense hardship, painted large and joyful. Almost forcing you to stare and confront reality. Editor: It's true, seeing those simplified forms—what looks like a central figure and other supportive structures almost—framed like that really amplifies the sense of pushing against darkness. Curator: The crude-but-expressive marks push beyond pure formalism into emotionally-charged representation. How his abstractions somehow contain recognizable life. And just those small details, how all of it can be seen on so many levels depending on your point of view, it is rather powerful. Editor: Yes, it has stayed with me longer than I would have thought... a vibrant protest and statement all at once. Curator: And perhaps its ongoing cultural legacy stems from this dynamic contrast of style and content? Editor: Precisely, one that perhaps still has something left to say.