The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 1984

Keith Haring made this drawing called The Marriage of Heaven and Hell with black marker, and when you look at it you can imagine him just going for it – a flurry of lines, figures, and symbols exploding across the surface. I feel like Haring’s letting his unconscious mind take over; there’s an immediacy here, a raw energy. The hands reaching towards each other—are they connecting or fighting? The devilish monster on the bottom looks like he’s up to no good, in stark contrast to the floating angels on top, but somehow they’re all part of the same picture. It’s like life, right? Chaotic and beautiful and terrifying all at once. I see echoes of art brut, of comic books, even of ancient hieroglyphs. He’s tapping into something primal, something universal. It reminds us that we’re all part of a much larger story, and that maybe, just maybe, heaven and hell aren’t so different after all.