Radiant Vision, the great exhibition dedicated to Keith Haring, curated by Katharine J Wright, is arriving in Parma. After four stops in the United States, one last year at the Orangerie of the Villa Reale in Monza and a final one in Israel, 130 works by the celebrated American artist, a leading figure in Pop and Street Art since the 1980s, will be on display at Palazzo Tarasconi from September 17 to February 4.

“It is a performance and in the same time it is making a drawing” : this is what Haring had said of his art to Lisa Ponti when he met her in Milan in 1983. A practice that came from street art but combining with pop had made the artist realize the strong communicative potential of his simple and pictographic figures, of his bright colors, so much so that he would turn into a brand of himself, by activating numerous commercial collaborations as well.

The exhibition counts in fact – among lithographs, sculptures, silkscreens, drawings on paper and posters – the production for the New York subway as well as street art works. The famous 1986 Medusa Head will also be on display, the largest print ever made by Haring, which recalls the devastating AIDS epidemic that by that time was ravaging New York and whole world, and which had also hit the artist himself.

Opening image: Photo Neil R on Flickr