Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
18.2
Origins and Influences
William Seward Burroughs II (February 5, 1914-August 2, 1997) was born in
St. Louis, Missouri to a wealthy family (he was the namesake of his grandfather
the founder of the Burroughs Corporation) and died in Lawrence, Kansas where he
spent the last 15 years of his life with several pet cats. In between he became a drug
addict, a novelist, an essayist, a painter, a spoken word performer, was elected to the
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, awarded the Ordre des Arts
et des Lettres by France, graduated from Harvard, seduced boys in bath houses in
Weimar era Vienna, enlisted in the army, murdered his wife, lived in exile in Tangier,
Morocco, was a central member of the Beat Generation of writers along with Allen
Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, developed the Cut-Up technique of literary collage and
juxtaposition with the painter Brion Gysin and used it to write several of the most
influential novels in twentieth century American literature and was prosecuted for
violating obscenity laws in multiple states over the blatant homosexual imagery
of his work as part of an equally influential legal battle over his works (Morgan
1988
). In 83 years of life he participated directly in multiple generations of artistic
movements and influenced countless others in a wide range of media (Grauerholz
et al.
2000
).
Keith Haring (May 4, 1958-February 16, 1990) was born in a small town in
Pennsylvania, moved to New York City as a teenager and lived there until he died
in his early 30s from AIDS related complications (Gruen
1992
). Despite his brief
life he became an extremely influential and popular artist, drawing early inspiration
from the explosive growth of graffiti in New York City of the 1970s and the pop art
of Andy Warhol from the 1960s. His distinctive stylized and pullulating figures have
become icons, not merely iconic but the actual (and often official) representation
of social issues such as the AIDS epidemic (in 'Silence
D
Death' 1989), Gay Pride
('National Coming Out Day', 1988) and the crack epidemic ('Crack is Wack', 1986)
that defined life in New York City during the 1980s and shaped Haring's life and
work (Reading Public Museum
2006
).
Haring was directly inspired by Burroughs' writing as well. Some examples
from his personal journals discussing this influence include: “The major influence,
although it is not the sole influence, has been the work of William S. Burroughs.
His profound realizations, which I encountered in radio broadcasts of the Nova
Convention, and in the topic The Third Mind by Burroughs and Brion Gysin, which
I have just begun to read, are beginning to tie up a lot of loose ends in my own work
and thinking” (Haring
1996
).
Also: “All of a sudden (now) some things became clear to me in a way that
was similar to my introduction to the work of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin
in 1978. I mean, that things that existed in my head as ideas I thought to be my
own were given form by seeing their embodiment in the life and work of someone
else. It is hard to believe I only discovered Burroughs, Ginsberg, etc. in 1978.
I “accidentally” stumbled across the Nova Convention at the Entermedia Theatre in
