In the thirty years since his death, Keith Haring-a central presence on the New York downtown scene of the 1980s-has remainedáone of the most popular figures in contemporary American art. In one of the first book-length treatments of HaringâÇÖs artistry, Ricardo Montez traces the drawn and painted line that was at the center of HaringâÇÖs artistic practice and with which the artist marked canvases, subway walls, and even human flesh. Keith HaringâÇÖs Line unites performance studies, critical race studies, and queer theory in an exploration of cross-racial desire in HaringâÇÖs life and art. Examining HaringâÇÖs engagements with artists such as dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones, graffiti artist LA II, and iconic superstar Grace Jones, Montez confronts HaringâÇÖs messy relationships to race-making and racial imaginaries, highlighting scenes of complicity in order to trouble both the positive connotations of inter-racial artistic collaboration and the limited framework of appropriation.á
