Keith Haring: Symbolic Gestures is on display now through April 15, 2018 at the Reading Public Museum.
The year 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of Keith Haring’s first solo exhibition held at the Pittsburgh Arts and Craft Center in 1978. The Reading Public Museum, where the artist first exhibited his work in 1976, will mount an exhibition of paintings, prints, and sculpture from all phases of the career of this internationally-known “hometown” artist. Raised in Kutztown, Berks County, Keith Haring went on to become one of the most influential artists of his generation, making his mark as both a street graffiti artist and later, as a fine artist. Haring enlisted a language of visual symbols-televisions, radiant babies, barking dogs, hearts, pyramids, etc. – that embodied the essence of his age and became universally recognizable. Early works from the dawn of his career will be included as well as well-known prints from the artist’s Pop Shop (1987, 1988), Chocolate Buddha (1989), and Icons (1990).
Mariano Fortuny: Etching the Exotic is on display now through May 27, 2018.
This unique exhibition features a group of more than 30 etchings by Spanish painter and etcher, Mariano Fortuny (Spanish, 1838 – 1874) and his contemporaries. One of the leading artists of his day, working in both Paris and Rome, the artist achieved international renown in the second half of the 19th century. The artist often explored the theme of Orientalism and the romantic exotic, drawn from trips to North Africa, including time in Tangier during 1859-60 during the Spanish-Moroccan War. Fortuny was an innovator in painting, watercolor, and etching, and this exhibition will include several works in those mediums. His distinctive and brilliant use of etching as an independent genre, with a unique freedom of line and expression, made him one of the most important and influential graphic artists of his time. All of the works are drawn from the collection of works on paper at the Reading Public Museum.
