Three Masters on Mickey Mouse

GALLERY

Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Walt Disney

at the Worchester Art Museum

through December 6

Keith Haring once said that Mickey Mouse is "ultimately a symbol of America more than anything else." Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Walt Disney is the manifestation of that idea. The show focuses on Haring, who was inspired by Walt Disney's and Andy Warhol's use of popular images and mass production.

Haring is perhaps best known for his outline cartoon figures surrounded with quick, sharp lines. Perhaps one of the most famous images is Radiant Child, a drawing of a crawling baby accented by Haring's signature black lines. Haring created over 5000 drawings between 1981 and 1986. He was arrested at least 20 times for defacing public property with his "graffiti art"; in actuality, when he painted in subway stations, he only painted on blank billboards.

Haring quite literally brought art to the people of America through the Pop Shop, a store he opened in New York City where he sold items including tee-shirts, skateboards and Swatch watches with his designs imprinted on them.

He also created posters and billboards that addressed social problems, most notably the AIDS awareness poster that states, "Ignorance=Fear, Silence=Death. Fight AIDS." Haring, like Warhol, died of an AIDS-related illness.

The image that captures the essence of this exhibit is Haring's Andy Mouse, a series of paintings of Warhol as Mickey Mouse. Haring once, admitted in an interview that Andy Mouse is a representation of himself.

Haring credited Warhol with being his major inspiration: "You see, whatever I've done would not have been possible without Andy. Had Andy not broken the concept of what art is supposed to be, I just wouldn't have been able to exist."

Warhol challenged the accepted definition of art by experimenting with the border between originality and mass production. He used popular images of objects and celebrities and silk-screened them on to canvases, often varying color combinations. This exhibit contains some classic Warhol subjects, including Chairman Mao, Jackie Kennedy, and Marilyn Monroe. One corner of the exhibition space is devoted to a pile of Kellogg's Cornflakes packing box replicas. Carpenters made these wooden boxes to the exact dimensions of the actual ones; Warhol's assistants silk-screened the letters onto the pieces.

One of the most striking displays of Warhol's work is 10 images of popular characters from a 1981 portfolio entitled Myths. On one wall hang pictures of Mickey Mouse, Howdy Doody, Santa Claus, Greta Garbo, Dracula, Superman, Uncle Sam, the Wicked Witch of the West, Mammy and a self portrait called The Shadow. With this series, Warhol has drawn attention to Hollywood's ability to create icons that the entire country recognizes.

The creation of Mickey Mouse in 1928 marked the entry of art into the mainstream of everyday life. The exhibition spans the history of the Walt Disney Company, from "Steamboat Willie" (the first animated film to feature Mickey Mouse and a synchronized soundtrack) to "The Prince and the Pauper," Disney's 1990 animation short. The exhibit includes preliminary drawings, movie posters, and frames of celluloid animation film ("cells"). The sequence of drawings for "The Prince and the Pauper" includes a story sketch, which captures the mood of the story; rough drawings of the extreme points of the character's movements; "clean up animations"; and a cell with a painted background that can be used for more than one frame--the ability to reuse backgrounds is important since one second of film consists of 24 frames.

Through this exhibit, the museum aims to show the public that art is not just something that hangs on museum walls--it is as much a part of daily American life as Mickey Mouse is. The Worcester Art Museum has set aside one of their small galleries as a room where children (and adults, too) can participate in hands-on activities. The room features Keith Haring coloring books, black paper and chalk which visitors can use to create "subway drawings" like Haring's, and huge black and white plastic-covered photographs of Madonna and Batman which children can embellish with colored markers to create Warhol-esque images. It is Mickey Mouse, though, that is the unifying image of this exhibition. His presence here guarantees an unusually accessible and fun museum experience.