Brad Gooch

"Finding a chronicler with the proper combination of familiarity and detachment can be like going on a series of bad Hinge dates, but in Gooch, Haring has met his match. Radiant, referring to both Haring's recurrent drawing of a crawling baby and his own fast-burning star, is a faithful retracing of his steps, with over 200 people interviewed or consulted: devoted and probably definitive...Gooch is a poet, which shows in phrasing at once shrewd and evocative...[His] book insists readers slow down and consider the artist's legacy."

-- The New York Times

 

"Haring's admirers continue to complain that he isn't taken seriously enough; in a way, they are correct , though this book may change things...highly entertaining."

-- The New Yorker

 

"Radiant does exactly what biographies of the exceptionally famous should do: gently, graciously, it reels in the myth, restoring the fleesh-and-bone reality...Gooch's descriptions of the booming East Village art scene are indelible...I cried upon finishing it."

--Washington Post

 

"Gooch made it his mission to show how much living and creating Haring packed into just 31 years, and he more than succeeds. Radiant not only gives an overdue appreciation of Haring as an important artist. It also paints an exhilirating portrait of a young artist finding himself and his calling."

-- Los Angeles Times

 

"A compelling biography...Gooch vividly evokes New York in the early 80s, surely one of the most culturally exciting eras of all time."

-- The Guardian

 

"Gooch's extensive research creates a seductive portrait of the artist as a young man...As on previous books on Frank O'Hara and Flannery O'Connor, Gooch writes bourbon-smooth prose."

-- Minneapolis Star-Tribune

 

"Brad Gooch takes us deep into Keith Haring's imagination while somehow managing to fix the aura and energy of the 1980s art scene to the page. A keen-eyed, beautifully written biography, atmospheric, exuberant, and as radiant as they come."

-- Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Revolutionary: Sam Adams

 

"Brad Gooch is the perfect guide to 1980s downtown Manhattan's holy, scuzzy streets. This rigorous, loving exploration of Keith Haring's life and work will be cherished by fans of Haring, art history, and New York City."

--Ada Calhoun, New York Times bestselling author of Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me

 

"Gooch has produced the authoritative and likely definitive account of this emblematic, prophetic artist of the 1980s...Having lived in Haring's world, Gooch is superlative in recreating the excitement and volatility of that burgeonig East Side New York art scene, with its accompanying cultural upheaval. His prose shines."

-- Bay Area Reporter

 

"Gooch delivers not only a biography of the artist but a globe-trotting account of how Haring's pictograms flooded the zeitgeist."

-- New Republic

 

"Haring's exuberance infuses Gooch's wonderfully rich biography...Through extensive interviews, Gooch vividly evokes downtown Manhattan of the tumultuous 1980s...When Haring dies from complications of HIV/AIDS at just 31, readers feel as though they really knew him and his distinctive art."

--National Book Review's "5 Hot Books"

 

"Gooch's book helps to fill in the crater that is the untold story of the queer art movement after Andy Warhol and before Rent--one of the largest gaps in LGBTQ art-political history and in the story of the city itself...rich, emotional, and compelling."

--The Nation

 

"Gooch does a beautiful job of uncovering the man behind the beloved graffiti and offers us the first truly intimate look at one of the most important artists of the 20th century."

--HuffPost

 

"Writer Brad Gooch's career goes from strength to strength. Not many people can move from working as a model to turning out quickie bios on Hall & Oates and Billy Idol to substantive works of fiction, memoir and acclaimed biographies of poet Frank O'Hara and writer Flanney O'Connor. Now Gooch proves the perfect author to capture the all-too-brief career of artist Keith Haring and the turbulent, exciting times they both lived through."

--Parade