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Keith Haring is Hitting the Road to the Broad!

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will be closed Monday, May 13, to prepare for the visit of Antiques Roadshow. We will return to normal hours of operation Wednesday, May 15.

A bright spot in our collection (as in, literally bright red) has left its home of nearly ten years on Walker Landing and is heading for Hollywood!

Walker Landing with Two-Headed Figure sculpture by Keith Haring
Keith Haring, Two-Headed Figure, 1986, Polyurethane paint on aluminum, situated on Walker Landing since 2013.

Our well-loved two-headed friend, Keith Haring’s Two-Headed Figure (1986), as well as a lesser-seen (because it’s HUGE) Haring work in our collection, Moses and the Burning Bush (1985), are two of more than 120 works being assembled for a major exhibition celebrating the artist’s brief yet incredibly impactful career called Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody, on view at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles from May 27 to October 8. It will return to its home on Walker Landing later this year.

Keith Haring,
Keith Haring, Moses and the Burning Bush, 1985, Acrylic on canvas. 117 × 144 in. (297.2 × 365.8 cm) – see, it’s HUGE!
Members of Crystal Bridges’ Preparatory Team (they’re our art handlers) escort Haring’s Two-Headed Figure through the Contemporary Gallery on its way to be packed and shipped out.

Before its debut in the land of glam, Two-Headed Figure will first have an overdue spa treatment. It’ll make a pit stop at McKay Lodge Conservation Lab in Ohio for conservation treatment and get a shiny new coat of that wonderfully bright paint! Haring’s beloved sculpture will be ready for its close-up. Or rather, close-ups (two heads, get it?)!

While not every work gets a chance to meet celebrities in the California sun, it’s not unusual for art to move around the country, whether it’s new works joining the collection or old favorites—like Two-Headed Figure—visiting other museums and cities.

Things are always changing here at your museum, so stay tuned for more stories from the road!

 

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