Keith Haring's Line is a brilliant, engaging, and necessary book. Centering the story of Haring's line on the queer people of color with whom Haring collaborated, Ricardo Montez gifts the reader with an intensely productive vocabulary for naming and exploring the relational dynamics that define the practices of a number of artists working across incommensurate forms of difference. Montez's writing does justice to so many neglected figures (like Juan Dubose and graffiti artist LA II) and importantly situates Haring's practice in relationship to performance-centered scenes of the 1970s and 1980s. This is not only the definitive take on Haring, it is the book on Haring's world. -- Jennifer Doyle, author of * Hold It Against Me: Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art *
A well-written and carefully elaborated study of Keith Haring and the cultural politics of race and desire that spans beyond Haring. Ricardo Montez's careful reading of different scenes of interracial desire allows the reader to get close to the nuances of the power dynamics played out within them. Original and compelling. -- Gavin Butt, author of * Between You and Me: Queer Disclosures in the New York Art World, 1948-1963 *
"Keith Harings Line is neither a biography nor a general assessment of Harings work as an artist. Rather, it is a queer musing upon the intersections of sex and race in Harings work. . . . Montez writes with authority about photography, art, and queer theory, but the passion of this book lies in its interrogation of sex and race." -- Dennis Altman * Gay and Lesbian Review *
"Keith Harings Line exudes political and aesthetic friction, impressively threading many entry points and tactics. Following in the legacy of his late mentor Jose Esteban Munoz (to whom the book is dedicated), Montez brings deliberate specificity to the ubiquitous figure of Haring. By exposing and avoiding the trappings of linearity, singularity, and script, Montez is instead able to present vulnerability, fluidity, and flesh." -- Danilo Machado * Hyperallergic *
"Montez's book is a welcome addition to a constellation of projectssome foundational, others newerthat pay fuller, much-needed attention to the exchanges between race and queer desire in New York City's 'Downtown scene'of the early 1980s. Like Haring's line, Montez's prose is crisp and decisive. In this final chapter and throughout his readings, his beautiful writing invites readers to rethink our scholarly machines, to reimagine what critical writing and our theory-landed prose can do.Keith Haring's Lineplaces its author's affective investments on full display." -- Tyler T. Schmidt * Postmodern Culture *
