This NYC Cathedral Has One of the Final Keith Haring Artworks

[00:00:01]Just a few blocks away from Columbia University is the largest cathedral in North America.

[00:00:06]It is also the unlikely home to one of the final works of legendary artist Keith Haring.

[00:00:11]>> [music] >> So, we're in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in the Chapel of St. Columba, which is one of the great seven chapels in the cathedral. The triptych behind me is called The Life of Christ, and it was designed by Keith Haring. He's one of the great artists of the 20th century and a great New Yorker.

[00:00:25]>> Haring, who was born in Kutztown, Pennsylvania in 1958, skyrocketed to fame in the 1980s in the downtown New York art scene. Haring used his art to spur serious discussion about social and political life, especially raising awareness about the AIDS crisis.

[00:00:42]>> 1990, Keith Haring is controversial, extremely controversial in the height of the AIDS crisis, where the church stood on LGBT people and on disease and even in in art, like claiming the Jesus figure for these men that are dying in our nation, extremely controversial.

[00:00:59]>> By 1987, Haring, who is openly gay, was diagnosed with HIV. Shortly after, it developed [music] into full-blown AIDS.

[00:01:07]>> What was happening to gay men during the '80s, it was really dangerous to be them. The times are always like that for someone, and part of the work of the church, maybe a central work of the church, is [music] to be on the side of the people for whom that is happening in this time.

[00:01:22]That we walk the way of the cross, and what is more the cross than people dying of AIDS, neglected by our government, didn't have to die. You know, the people dying of police violence, it doesn't have to happen.

[00:01:32]>> Haring's condition [music] worsened, but he never stopped creating. In the final weeks of his life, he created the Life of Christ Triptych. [music] The piece was made from clay and then cast in bronze and white gold, weighing over 600 lb. There are three original [music] pieces that were donated to churches that were important to Haring in San Francisco, Paris, and New York.

[00:01:52]>> The ministry of this place is why Keith Haring wanted this here.

[00:01:56]And you know what I love is, no matter how big you are, the idea that your art should be on an altar of a great cathedral is pretty magnificent, right? And I can imagine a world, frankly, in which this is created and goes into the basement.

[00:02:10]Because there's a lot There are a lot of great pieces here. I think the fact that it's up and displayed and has been displayed It's not displayed as art, but displayed in the function of an altar as a triptych is a tribute to both the cathedral um and to Keith Haring that it is understood as religious art. I mean, this image, which again is iconic, it's on everyone's shopping bag now, right?

[00:02:27]Everyone uses it. The idea that this is religious art that would be used at an altar is a pretty radical idea.

[00:02:36]St. John the Divine [music] writes the Book of Revelation is the story. And the Revelation is about the end of time. And one of the images of the end of time is all of the people of all of the nations, every tribe of every language, celebrating before the throne of God.

[00:02:50]Basically, it's a restoration of all creation of every kind. That's what this, theologically, looks like to me.

[00:02:55]Because there's so few lines in it, it could be anyone. Like you don't see gender, you don't see race, you don't see class. So it feels very much like a social justice movement down here, frankly. Like you got some fists up there as well as people dancing. And then here we have these angels, um which are pretty iconic. Today also, when some of the frankly really hateful groups come out and try to protest um gay people in churches, these angels' wings are what um people put on, the people that come to protect you from protesters, but also just the fact of angels and all those people that hold up our lives invisibly. And a fallen angel in our tradition is always Satan. That's the devil. I kind of love the idea of evil falling into the hands of the celebrators. I hope they get their justice. And then here we have Haring's iconic baby, of which no more meaning is, I think, meant than is an iconic baby. But for us, if you put a baby in the middle of a triptych under a cross and a heart, like that looks like Jesus to me. And then I love this God image behind the cross because, as is it has a lot of arms and legs and kind of reaches out into the world and all the things that deity can do and all the arms represent that. So, there's kind of wide reach. And then, you know, and then our tradition say we say God is love and this heart in the center of this image is a really powerful way to express a God a love God and then I even like like there are these like curves that's like, oh, maybe it's a woman. It is grace. And then the cross for us represents the suffering [music] of the human person.

[00:04:16]Are they teardrops? Are they raindrops?

[00:04:18]Are they drops of blood?

[00:04:20]Are they the contagion? And then all these lines so effectively, this is again the brilliance of Haring, you can feel the aliveness. So, unlike most triptychs which are very flat and feel historic, this thing feels like it's leaping out at you in all the best ways.

[00:04:34]And so, we just had our Juneteenth picnic. [music] So, we had all these folks in the neighborhood who don't know us, don't know the Episcopal Church. Um and one guy was wearing a shirt that had a Keith Haring image on it. So, one of our staff members brought him in here to see this and he was blown away to actually see a real thing. Just dazzled by the idea that he could be this close to a piece of work like this. It was like beyond him. So, in this great city that has the Metropolitan Museum and MoMA and such iconic art, we're not a museum. Like we are a living breathing church. [music] So, when you come here, we pray here. So, it does feel a little bit different to come here and be here in a place [music] where this is actually part of the act of worship.

[00:05:12]>> The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine has hosted many [music] world leaders to speak to the congregation, including Nelson Mandela, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., >> [music] >> and the Dalai Lama. It is also where Keith Haring's memorial was held in May 1990, [music] just months after he died.

[00:05:28]>> One thing we know about his dying. We know how to bury the dead. We know how to do that. And one of the gifts of this cathedral is we are we are chartered by the state. We are for the city. We are for New York. And so, when a great New Yorker dies, we are one of the places that can can care for the soul of the city.

[00:05:45]>> The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is open to visitors 7 days a week.

[00:05:49]>> We are an Episcopal Cathedral and one of the great things about being an Episcopalian is we welcome absolutely everyone. We're between 110th and 113th on Amsterdam Avenue on the West Side and if you come to New York, please do come see us.

[00:06:03]>> For Inside Edition Digital, I'm Sal Bono.