Architext: Crack is wack

there was word that the clay tennis courts in riverside park next to the hudson river were open. tennis starved, we biked up there to scope out the situation. when we arrived, we found out unlike the central park courts, where one can reserve for anytime later in the day, you can only reserve riverside courts for the next available spot, which for us meant 11 AM. instead of sitting idly on a bench and waiting 90 minutes, we decided to bike. it was the perfect amount of time to bike to the east side of manhattan to check out a keith haring mural and come back.

en route, we could see the bike lanes are undergoing a transformation in nyc. with restaurants now open for outdoor dining only, they're starting to put their seating on sidewalks and in the middle of the street next to bike lanes. j asked the other night "how come people didn't eat outside before?... it's such a good idea." the streets are looking more lively... too bad it took a pandemic for new york to look more like rome.

museums in nyc are now closed for the foreseeable future. so like dining in nyc, you have to find your art outside now. in harlem, we passed large portions of streets that were shut down and being painted with black lives matter artwork. 34 years ago, keith haring made his art outside for a more direct relationship to the public.

When Haring came to NYC in 1978 he enrolled in the School of Visual Arts. In New York, Haring found a thriving art community outside the gallery and museum system, in the downtown streets, the subways, and the spaces in clubs and former dance halls. he saw opportunity in the unused advertising panels covered with matte black paper in subway stations, and began to create drawings in white chalk on these blank paper panels throughout the subway system. between 1980 and 1985, he produced hundreds of public chalk drawings on unused subway ad space in rapid linework. sometimes he created as many as forty “subway drawings” in one day. the subway became, as Haring said, a “laboratory” for working out his ideas and experimenting with his simple lines.

According to Haring, "I arrived in New York at a time when the most beautiful paintings being shown in the city were on wheels – on trains – paintings that traveled to you instead of vice versa. I was immediately attracted to the subway graffiti on several levels: the obvious mastery of drawing and color, the scale, the pop imagery, the commitment to drawing worthy of risk and the direct relationship between artist and audience.

In the summer of 1986, Haring often drove by a handball court on East 128th Street. it was not used as it was unfenced next to the FDR highway. haring thought its placement would make for a good billboard mural. he was starting to branch out from subway chalk drawings.

“inspired by Benny (a fallen crack addicted apprentice), and appalled by what was happening in the country, but especially New York, and seeing the slow reaction (as usual) of the government to respond, I decided I had to do an anti-crack painting.”

without any legal permission to paint a mural, Haring finished the 'crack is wack' painting in one day. he wasn’t stopped or questioned by police while he painted. “when you have a van, ladders, and paint, policemen don’t even consider asking whether you have any permission, they just assume you do.” But as Haring was finishing up, one policeman stopped the crew and arrested Haring after learning he illegally painted on the wall. The artist faced a hefty fine and jail time. fortunately, positive publicity for the mural reduced Haring's fine to $100 and zero jail time.

A vandal defaced the painting, transforming it into a pro-crack mural. then the mural was then painted over in gray by a “”busy bee in the Parks Department,” according to Haring. the parks commissioner asked haring to paint a new mural, which Haring obliged. eventually the park that housed the handball court was officially renamed the "crack is wack" playground after haring died prematurely from AIDS 5 years later.