The alarms went off last spring. Acid , the mural that Keith Haring (1958-1990) painted in 1989 in the DJ booth of the old Ars Studio nightclub, he ran the risk of being struck down by the impact of the pickaxe. Until then, the mural also known as Flower boy, had remained intact behind the bar of the Club Billares Ars, the business that took over from the nightclub after its closure in the 1990s, but the property’s plans for the building on Calle Atenas 27 to tear down the property to build a residence for the elderly , seriously compromised their future.
The mystery about his survival was cleared up in June after the initiation of a file declaring a Cultural Asset of National Interest, but not about what his destination was going to be. Half a year later, it is still not clear, but according to sources from the property to The vanguard , Acid will stay in Barcelona and will be in public view, either in a museum (the possibility that they are considering is the Moco, the new center open on Montcada street), or in the future nursing home, where all the months several visiting days.
© Cesar de Melero
Haring painting in the booth of the dj Cesar de Melero, whom he became friends with, during his visit to Barcelona
Haring, a public-minded artist whose jubilant and radically vital stamp can be traced from New York or San Francisco to Pisa, Antwerp, Berlin or Paris, visited Barcelona in 1989, a few months before his death from complications from AIDS. In a Raval that was still El Chino, painted in red ink his emblematic Together we can stop AIDS. The mural disappeared in 1992 with the reform of the neighborhood, and currently only a reproduction of it remains next to the Macba. The only public work that survives therefore in Barcelona is the Flower child , which he painted at the Ars Studio, because of his friendship with the dj Cesar de Melero and as a gift to Barcelona, despite being in a private room with public access. And there a new problem appeared. The new tenant and owner of the billiards Gabriel Carral granted his property using a clause in the lease agreement according to which when he left the premises he could remove the painting from the wall, valued, he said, at 80,000 euros, and the possibility of selling it to a possible private collector.
Thirty years later the mural is still alive, it is in very good condition and we are not going to lose it ”, says the architect Josep Julià
Finally, it has been the owners of the property who, after terminating the contract, have acquired it from Carral for an amount that they do not want to make public. The architect Josep Josep Julià, founder of Pulsen, the study that has projected an innovative residence for the post-covid era that will require an investment of seven million euros, is now the new “safeguard” of the work. “Thirty years later the mural is still alive, it is in very good condition and we are not going to lose it,” says Julià. Your first option would be to rip it off the wall and move it to the Moco, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art that opened its doors last October at the Palau Cervelló from Montcada street. Julià, who knows the project well because he was the author of its reform, assures that it has already signed with its founders (the couple of Dutch collectors Lionel and Kim Logchies) a two-year agreement that can be extended to another two.
© Pedro Madueño
In the Raval neighborhood, the artist painted the mural ‘All together we can stop AIDS’. Destroyed with the reform of the neighborhood, a copy is preserved next to the Macba
“But the mural was painted on a dividing load-bearing wall, which makes it very difficult to remove it,” he says. At present, he has commissioned a study from the restorer Gisela Bosom, who has participated in rehabilitation projects such as the Casa de les Punxes de Puig i Cadafalch, The roundabout of Houses in the Cercle del Liceu or in the restoration of numerous works Museu de la Abadia de Montserrat.
In the event that her report advises against touching the painting, which is highly probable, Julià will reform her current residence project, in such a way that the Flower child form part of the living room, with independent access for scholars and visitors. The owners of goods declared of cultural interest are obliged to put them in public view, at least four days a month, on established days and times.
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