KAYLIE SIROVY: Hello everybody. This is Kaylie Sirovy and this is for Influx Magazine. This is our magazine editing and production class where we make a whole magazine. Very impressive. Today I am sitting down with Sommer. They did a story on Keith Haring, the Keith Haring Graffiti around the University of Minnesota campus.
Welcome Sommer.
WAGEN: Hi. It’s great to be here.
SIROVY: It is indeed. This is going to be kind of just a conversation, a little history about Keith Haring and yeah, Sommer, why don’t you start us off. What are we talking about here?
WAGEN: Yeah, so we are talking about the Keith Haring graffiti tags, doodles, what have you that have been showing up around campus since last fall. Last fall was the first time that I saw it, but someone I talked to said they saw one, even last summer too, which is kind of crazy, but like really they’ve just kind of taken hold of me and I know that, I know they’ve taken a hold of like a lot of people around here. They’re very noticeable. It’s been cool to look into like the history of the art and kind of wonder why this person, or maybe these people are putting these drawings up.
SIROVY: What was the first one that you saw?
WAGEN: Yeah, the first one that I saw was by the Anderson Hall bus stop that’s headed like eastbound when you wanna go from West Bank to East Bank. You go down the stairs. There are these pillars holding up the top part of the bridge or walk area. It had this purple, handwriting that said “Free Palestine, we won’t be silenced.” Won’t was underlined and then kind of the corner of it where these Keith Haring guys, one was holding up a heart, one was holding up a Palestinian flag and another was just a dog that was running and barking. And I saw it and I was like, “oh, that’s cool.” I thought, you know, someone who has this kind of message, it makes sense that they choose Keith Haring as an inspiration, which I’ll get into later. It also looked like that the Free Palestine message had been there already and then maybe this other person added the Keith Haring doodles, which I think is really cool. It was kind of like building off of what was already there. After that moment I just started seeing them more and more and it kind of became like a phenomenon. Finding one honestly feels like they’ve been waiting for you in a sense. They’re just so delightful and so many people seem to know about it, but not know who the artist is at all, which is kind of cool because, there’s just this kind of like mystery and obviously this person knows exactly what they’re doing.
SIROVY: So mysterious. Are they just on the University of Minnesota campus, like on East Bank or are they on West Bank? Are they on the St. Paul campus?
WAGEN: I haven’t, I don’t make it out to the St. Paul campus, like ever, so I haven’t looked there. But I honestly should. But I found them all over campus and also the surrounding neighborhoods like Como Stadium Village and Cedar Riverside.
SIROVY: I know whenever I see them, like I, this was like two weeks ago, I think I was walking up to the bus stop outside of Folwell Hall.
And I saw on the sign that said Folwell, there was a new one. I was like, “I’ve been to this bus stop so many times before, but it was just like, oh, that’s so cool. So sweet.” Like, it’s just like, it kind of makes your day almost.
WAGEN: It does. They always do. They always do. I remember I found another, one just on the back of a random utility box or whatever outside of the student union, and I was just like, “Ugh.
There you are. There you are.” It’s right there.
SIROVY: It was so cute to see.
WAGEN: Mm-hmm.
SIROVY: So let’s talk about who Keith Haring is, because I know I’ve seen his paintings, but I don’t really know about him.
WAGEN: Mm-hmm.
SIROVY: Let’s get into his history maybe a little bit.
WAGEN: Yeah, let’s do it. And also, as we saw on Monday, that professor was like, “I don’t know who Keith Haring is.” I was a little shocked. You don’t know who Keith Haring like, like I get like not being interested or like aware of the art world or whatever. But it’s Keith Haring. But anyway, Keith Haring, was born on May 4th, 1958, we love a Taurus King, in Reading, Pennsylvania. That’s like northeast of Philadelphia. He was born in reading and then he grew up. In a small town like northwest of that called Kutztown. He grew up drawing with his dad. His dad had cartooning as a hobby, but from a very young age they were just drawing together. He would draw cartoons, like Mickey Mouse and all of these other things, that’s really like a cool through line you see in his art. His art as an adult really has this like childlike aura to it ’cause it’s simple, bright colors, thick lines. And sometimes they’re just really funny scenes of guys chasing each other dogs barking or a person jumping over water and dolphins, whatever. It really calls to everyone’s inner child in a sense. And I think that’s kind of why the graffiti showing up around campus now is so popular and noticeable. It’s just kind of like. It makes you feel good, you know, makes me want to enjoy the simpler things in life. After he graduates from high school, he studies commercial art very briefly in Pittsburgh, but loses interest then he moves to New York City in 1978 to study at the School of Visual Arts. I have a quote here. It’s from a journal entry of his, from that time when he first moved to New York it says.
“I am becoming much more aware of movement. The importance of movement is intensified. When a painting becomes a performance, the act of painting becomes as important as the resulting painting.”
And it’s also around this time where he starts going into the subway and drawing on blank advertising backboards. In the 80s, they had these, like advertisements were pretty much just posters with black backing board. When an advertiser hadn’t paid for a spot yet, it was just blank. So he goes down the subway, he sees it goes right back up buys a piece of chalk, and then starts drawing right in front of people walking by. It takes him a few minutes to do one. It’s definitively graffiti. He would sometimes get arrested for doing this. I was like actually reading something last night. He would get arrested and then the cops would bring him in and they would be like, “you know, I actually really love your work. I’m just doing my job arresting you, good job.”
SIROVY: Like any other way you could have done this,
WAGEN: Or not like, yeah, just really just slaps on the wrist for that. But yeah, I think that presents a really interesting point where Keith did this with the intention of people seeing his drawings, right. And watching him draw. But then today, this person doing stuff on campus, like obviously is very covert and mysterious and not known. People see him doing these drawings and they’re really sometimes kind of crazy, but also interesting. They really bring a space together especially on the subway, where it starts to get out about him. And this is where I kind of wanna like go on a bit of a tangent about the UMN Haring’s. If you’re a Twin Cities listener, which maybe you are, maybe you weren’t, but in the summer of 2024, the Walker put on this huge Keith Haring exhibition. It was called Keith Haring Artists for Everybody. Brought probably thousands of people. And Haring himself had ties to the walker. He did a residency there and he painted a mural there. And funnily enough, the people at the Walker did not give back to me about my story, so I wasn’t able to talk to ’em.
SIROVY: What’d you ask them?
WAGEN: I was just like, “can I interview the curator, the person who helped put the show together” and just wasn’t able to happen. So like, I dunno, sad, sad. Yeah. One person I interviewed, they’re a student here at the U. They brought up a really interesting point. They said, “we pay money to see Haring’s work at the Walker and all of these other like really important museums all over the world. But once it shows up where it’s ,quote unquote, not supposed to be as in like the Washington Avenue Bridge or this pillar by the bus stop or anywhere around campus, it gets erased.” And the thing is like, that’s true. And our campus is so drab, especially the Washington Avenue Bridge. There was like the whole paint the bridge thing that ended right before, I came here and now there’s this big anti-suicide chainlink fence around it.
SIROVY: Either side of the Washington Avenue Bridge, there are chain link fences and signs. I get why they did it. But it’s definitely not nice to see. I’m curious, you said the Paint The Bridge thing? I don’t know what that is.
WAGEN: Yeah. Paint The bridge was a program that the U had for a very long time. I think from like the nineties up until 2019. And basically student groups would paint the panels on the inside walking area of the bridge. Now they’re just all painted maroon. But then these student groups would paint stuff talking about their group or have paintings up there. And I would’ve loved to be around here when that was a thing because I can imagine just how beautiful and colorful it was and just how much it showed the life of the university. I read an article in the Wake magazine, which is another student publication here at the U and the author wrote, like, “now walking around, walking on the Washington Avenue Bridge, it just feels so lifeless and dull painted in, maroon and gold” and it’s really drab. It attests to the university as a brand, but not the university as the people that go there and work there. So the artist of the Keith Haring tags is aware that they’re being erased. And also kind of, I feel like they’re aware of just how much life graffiti brings to spaces because I remember there was a sticker once somewhere, and it said, “why erase art?” And it’s like, yeah it goes back to that person’s point before, why are we, why is Haring’s work not supposed to be here? When he started as a graffiti artist and throughout his career, graffiti was always a part of his work whether it was out in public or on a canvas.
SIROVY: So what have been some of your favorites that you have seen?
WAGEN: Yeah, I’m gonna have to look at the pictures. Recently, soon after spring break, I was going to those very same stairs where I saw the first design and there was this dog barking, like the classic Haring blocky dog barking next to a sign pointing to which stops or where.
And I was just like, I get that dog. And it’s like, yes. Like I said before, finding one just feels like they’ve been waiting for you. Another person I interviewed for this story said she found this piece, it was huge. It’s of this dragon and a bunch of guys sliding off its tongue. That was in a bathroom at Blegen Hall.
SIROVY: Oh my God. So there’s like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 little guys just sliding off of a dragon’s tongue that’s like, coming out of his mouth and they’re all just wiggling and dancing. And they look like they’re having a good time.
WAGEN: Yeah, they are. And of course that piece got erased, even though it’s.
SIROVY: Oh, it did? When?
WAGEN: When, like earlier this year, probably like January or something like that.
SIROVY: It’s in a bathroom. Why did you have to do that?
WAGEN: It is, and it’s like, none of these tags are covering up any important information they’re just there.
SIROVY: They’re making people smile. Why do you have to take them away?
WAGEN: This is another one. I’m speaking to the university here.
Yeah. Period. Like, well, of course we know the university doesn’t listen to us. But anyway, this is another piece. This is under a bridge in Como, and that’s a favorite of,
SIROVY: Oh my goodness. It’s like a little dog going through a man. Mm-hmm. What does it say?
WAGEN: Viva la Recia. And that’s Spanish for long lived the resistance.
SIROVY: Speaking to our generation here.
WAGEN: Yeah, it does. And like Keith did too. He definitely did. Do you have any favorites, Kaylie, that you’ve seen?
SIROVY: I saw one in the Church street parking lot, the one where it goes underground.
WAGEN: Mm-hmm.
SIROVY: I saw it and go there like twice a week, so it was brand new and I saw it and it made me smile. Parking lots don’t make me smile, but this was nice. So I don’t know if that’s my favorite, but that’s the one that comes off the top of my head that I really enjoy. Also, the one on Folwell Hall, now that I think about it, I don’t know if it’s still there. I’ll have to check later today. I’d be surprised if it was, but I saw it and went, “oh my God, this is incredible.”
WAGEN: Yeah. Hell yeah. Tag the sign for the building.
SIROVY: Yeah, you can still clearly see that it says Folwell, so like, why? It’s a, it’s university does what they want.
WAGEN: Mm-hmm.
SIROVY: Has the university said anything about graffiti on campus?
WAGEN: Not to my knowledge. It typically gets removed, but not all of it does. Not all of the Harings have, that’s for sure. Which is nice to see.
SIROVY: So after New York City, what did Keith Haring do?
WAGEN: So, Keith was known for working quickly and working all the damn time. He just loved what he did. He sometimes completed 40 paintings in a day. He was just like painting, painting, painting. He had like, you know, just boundless energy and he did so much and so little time. He then, he was around. But yeah, 1981 to 1982, that’s when he breaks through. The subway chalk, drawings get like attention. Everybody sees them because they’re in just this like, you know, like communal place in New York City. Everybody takes the subway. Within this span of time, he has shows all over the world. Paints murals all over the world. He really starts to make his mark in October, 1982. He does a collaborative show in New York City with the graffiti artist, LA Ⅱ, which he referred to as his little brother.
They were really tight. It’s a testament to the community around graffiti. It just shows how important Keith thought this art form was. And it was to him personally, but also like in order to platform. And even in his early years of success, he continued doing the subway drawings as he gained notoriety, which eventually led him to opening the pop shop in 1986, which was essentially his merch store. He would have art on buttons, pins, shirts, what have you. Then he stopped his subway drawings since at that point he had gotten the exposure he wanted, and also people were stealing them and selling them. But he still wanted a way to bring art to the people. He said, “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.” And I think that’s what really sets him apart as a person, even though he was doing all of this stuff and going all over the world, and he was friends with Madonna. He was friends with Madonna, Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat, who was another artist. He was a very popular dude, a party animal and he was, you know, living his life. But he always went back to his roots. He always stayed connected and he always knew how important it was for people to be able to access art all the time, not just in a museum. He really wanted that connection to be maintained. That was kind of his response to people saying he was commercializing his art too. He was very clear about the fact that he just wanted like people to have a way to connect with his art, just period and not have, you know, his art just sell at Christie’s, the auction house for millions of dollars.
SIROVY: You know, he wanted everyone, not regardless of how much money they had or what their status was in society. He wanted everyone to be able to have art, have access to it, and to enjoy it with others.
WAGEN: Yeah, exactly. That’s what the chalk drawings were like a performance for people, you know. And another thing, he said something like, “my art is meaningless. It’s the people who get to decide what it means.”
SIROVY: Aw, yeah.
WAGEN: Yeah.
SIROVY: This dude sounds incredible.
WAGEN: Yeah. It’s such a shame that he’s no longer with us. And also it sucks that the pop shop isn’t a thing anymore. It closed in 2005.
SIROVY: Oh, why?
WAGEN: I think just like funding stuff. But yeah, there’s obviously still Keith Haring merch today, but it’s.
SIROVY: Oh, I see it everywhere.
WAGEN: It’s on everything, but it’s soulless in a way where it’s like the kind of counter-cultural substance and meaning from his artwork has kind of been like really toned down in order to like show up on a Old Navy shirt for $10 that are sold by the millions,
SIROVY: Like, and made in a shop that is very expensive, but they don’t probably pay their workers a whole bunch.
WAGEN: And they’re probably working in really awful conditions too.
Now that I’m saying that, I think that’s really important. That’s why it’s important to know who, like Keith Harry’s story and who he was and like kind of understand the background of his art because it’s so easily taken out of context.
SIROVY: Did he die of old age then?
WAGEN: No, he died. He died only when he was 31. So the 80s obviously that was like the peak of the AIDS epidemic. In 1987, he got diagnosed with HIV and then the next year he was diagnosed with AIDS. This is kind of like when his work becomes the most overtly political, he said, “my life is my art. It’s intertwined. When AIDS became a reality in terms of my life, it started becoming a subject in my paintings. The more it affected my life, the more it affected my work.” He had always been political in his art. I feel like his positions on the world are kind of clear, but also they weren’t as direct, if that makes sense.
SIROVY: How was his art political then?
WAGEN: It was very like symbolic. I remember a chalk drawing that’s like, there’s like, it’s like an image on top of another one person is like breaking a stick and it’s like a checkmark in the corner. And in the bottom image, another person is chasing another with the stick and there are two X’s in the top corners. Oh. So it’s kind of like anti-violence. And then he would also more explicitly address for example, apartheid in South Africa, another pretty significant mural that he did. Said, “crack is whack,” in response to the crack epidemic. He wasn’t always explicitly political but towards the end of his life, that’s something he really leaned into. He was also openly gay. And his work often advocated for safe sex, and is still widely known for this. Like I said, the students I talked to today said that was the number one thing they knew him for. And even as he, you know, has AIDS and is experiencing the complications from that, he just keeps working. Unfortunately, he died 35 years ago. He died on February 16th, 1990. There’s this really beautiful part in his authorized biography where a few days before he dies he draws one of his most famous symbols. It’s a radiant baby, so it’s just like this, little baby, no distinguishing features. It’s just like his classic figure, but it’s like a baby crawling and then there are lines emanating from
SIROVY: Oh, I just looked it up. I have my computer next to me. I see. I see.
WAGEN: It really goes back to what I was talking about before the inner childhood, that we all experienced, but also that he really carried within himself. There’s really a radiant baby in all of us. And that.
SIROVY: Aw.
WAGEN: Yeah.
SIROVY: And that that’s kind of cute, but kind of like funny at the same time.
WAGEN: There’s an innocence and joy in all of us that, you know we should let, emanate from us, you know? And he, the fact that he was drawing this on his deathbed, like, you know, that spirit never left him even as he grew weaker, experienced life, fame and money, which, you know, can easily corrupt a lot of people. That radiant, joyful energy is why the graffiti here on UMN today is so impactful they can erase it, but it will keep coming back.
SIROVY: And I think that is a great way to leave off. Oh my goodness. That I feel so at peace right now. After hearing about this man that just wanted to create art to help people and make connections.
Oh, that’s so sweet. Thank you so much Sommer for talking with me today. We will have more episodes coming out. Take a look at Sommer’s article on the website and in the print publication that will be coming out soon. All right. Thank you so much for listening everyone.