Keith Haring at Tate Liverpool

Tate Liverpool has a great exhibition of paintings by Keith Haring at the moment. I think most people would probably recognise the works if not be able to name the artist. His style has become quite iconic since the '80s and his name should be better known.

He died in 1990, far too early and with so much potential - I wonder what on earth he'd be producing today if he was still with us and painting or using who knows what to create his art? I was quite pleased that one of the messages I took away from the exhibition is that he seemed to enjoy his work and had fun.

The 1980s were a strange decade - liberating, hedonistic and political and that sums up Keith Haring's work perfectly. He was very political and made this plain in his art. Whether it was about weapons or sex, he made his views known and produced incredibly simple and incredibly effective images to promote his views. He produced posters - as opposed to paintings - to be mass produced and plastered up on street walls, whether this was  about war, the church or AIDS didn't matter, he'd still go there.

Something that annoyed me and then drew me in was that he seemed to call all his works 'Untitled'. Or maybe he didn't name them, we did? Part way through the exhibition I decided to give up looking at the labels and that was an incredibly freeing moment - I don't care what  it's called I'll just revel in the moment and enjoy it for what it is. I'll make up the story that goes with this painting, thank you, and it's just as valid as your story. It was a very 'freeing' experience to visit this exhibition.

It's a very well curated exhibition, nicely spread out on the top floor of Tate Liverpool. There's even a 'disco room' to reflect how his first public sales exhibition looked, with loud music and lights - I did a little dance in his honour. There are a few video pieces to demonstrate was he was doing at the time and show his political leanings.

The later stages of the exhibition got darker when he became active in the AIDS movement and discovered that he was HIV positive himself. If anything, that kickstarted his creativity and he created some big, complex pieces about sexuality and death and who knows what else. Seeing these large pieces started me thinking about Bosch and his mad, crowded paintings full of activity and madness.

There were photos and videos of Keith Haring throughout the exhibition but my favourite photo of him is beside the exit door, this one, having a laugh and being daft in his jeans covered in patches. He created some astonishingly powerful works in his short life and he had fun doing it. Go and see this exhibition if you can and wind your mind back to the '80s.