Chronicle: Imako Tanaka – “Hiroshima Keith Haring Saw,” Part 4
Apr. 25, 2025
This museum has showcased Haring’s works from various perspectives, changing the theme once a year. Currently, it is hosting an exhibition titled “Keith Haring: Into 2025 Dare ga Sore wo Nozomunoka (Who hopes for it?).” This exhibition traces Haring’s activities, including his advocacy for anti-war and anti-nuclear causes, and explores his messages of peace and freedom from a contemporary perspective.
This exhibition opened in 2024 and will run until May 18, 2025. Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, we named the exhibition imagining how Haring’s art has impacted society and whether it can continue to inspire people.
The subtitle was inspired by the words Haring wrote in his diary after visiting the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima.
He wrote, “It is incredible that this destruction was caused by a bomb that was made in 1945, and that the level of sophistication and number of nuclear warheads has increased since then. Who could ever want this to happen again? To anyone? The frightening thing is that people debate and discuss the arms race as if they were playing with toys. All of these men should have to come here, not to a bargaining table in some safe European country.”
The figures depicted by Haring have no facial features, and we cannot tell what their skin color is or what they are wearing. Some hold weapons, while others in a group raise their fists. If they had faces, what expressions could they possibly have? We invite you to view his works from these perspectives. (Chief curator of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection in Yamanashi Prefecture)
(Originally published on April 25, 2025)
This exhibition opened in 2024 and will run until May 18, 2025. Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, we named the exhibition imagining how Haring’s art has impacted society and whether it can continue to inspire people.
The subtitle was inspired by the words Haring wrote in his diary after visiting the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima.
He wrote, “It is incredible that this destruction was caused by a bomb that was made in 1945, and that the level of sophistication and number of nuclear warheads has increased since then. Who could ever want this to happen again? To anyone? The frightening thing is that people debate and discuss the arms race as if they were playing with toys. All of these men should have to come here, not to a bargaining table in some safe European country.”
The figures depicted by Haring have no facial features, and we cannot tell what their skin color is or what they are wearing. Some hold weapons, while others in a group raise their fists. If they had faces, what expressions could they possibly have? We invite you to view his works from these perspectives. (Chief curator of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection in Yamanashi Prefecture)
(Originally published on April 25, 2025)
