In Theaters
Although he doesn’t actually pop in until later in the film, Andy Warhol is a permanent, lurking presence in Christina Clausen’s The Universe of Keith Haring. He was the silver-haired mentor-in-absentia to Haring, the tenaciously talented kid who embodied Warhol’s philosophy of art as work more than almost any other modern artist of note. In some ways, the two couldn’t have been more different. Haring was a skinny club denizen with a goofy forehead and giant glasses, as brazen about his homosexuality and opinions as Warhol, with his mystique of smartly attired shadowy ambivalence, remained reticent. Haring’s art was a circus-like explosion, while Warhol’s (candy-colored as it often was) took a darker, ironic stance…
The Universe of Keith Haring is now playing in limited release. I reviewed it in this week’s “The Screener” column for PopMatters.
Chris Barsanti 