“All good art is political, there is none that isn’t.”
So goes a quote by the great American novelist Toni Morrison: “The best art is political and you ought to be able to make it unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time.”
Few artists embody this ethos for the LGBTQ+ community more than Keith Haring. His work was both personal and political, endearing him to audiences as much for its immediately recognizable and unique aesthetic and its uncompromisingly defiant advocacy.
He was a personal favorite of Elliot Leonard and Roger Litz, founding Trustees of the Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation and avid art curators in their own right.
Now, through the Foundation, Elliot and Roger have made it possible for a new generation of LGBTQ+ artists and activists to be inspired by Haring’s legacy, with the donation of Haring’s “Apocalypse” series, including 30 distinct pieces of art, to the City College, part of the City University of New York.
Haring created “Apocalypse” in 1988, at the height of the AIDS pandemic and after his own diagnosis. The screen prints are accompanied by captions composed by his series collaborator, William S. Burroughs. The complete set, including the captions, will be displayed in campus spaces to inspire discussion among students, faculty, staff, and alumni, especially members of the CCNY and CUNY LGBTQ+ communities. The art will also be available for loaning to other CUNY campuses for display, particularly but not exclusively, in their respective LGBTQ+ student centers and campus art museums.
“The Apocalypse series captures the essence of a key moment in art and activism from the 1980s and, especially, in the struggle for rights for LGTBQ+ Americans and those with HIV/AIDS. Our students—and our entire community—will now be able to spend time with the artwork and be inspired by their messages,” said Andrew Rich, Richard J. Henley and Susan L. Davis Dean of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, and a co-founder of the LGBTQ+ Student Center at CCNY. “I share my profound thanks to Elliot Leonard, Roger Litz, and the Leonard-Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation for this donation and for their ongoing commitment to programming for LGBTQ+ students across CUNY.”
In Elliot’s words: “This an extraordinary series and an artifact of the pain, loss, and activism that characterized the height of the AIDS crisis. We hope it will inform discussion and debate on campus, and that the series will serve as inspiration to generations of students, especially members of the LGBTQ+ community.”
The official opening of the exhibit will take place on March 4, 2025, and will feature a discussion of the series, and the art and activism of the 1980s in New York City.