Keith Haring's Artwork Highlights Tacoma Show

"Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Walt Disney," Tacoma Art Museum, 1123 Pacific Ave. Through Mar. 29, Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun., Noon-5 p.m. $2. 272-4258. --------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps no three artists, taken together, have been so pervasive and influential in recent decades as Walt Disney, Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring.

Talk about larger than life:

Walt Disney, who triumphed in the '40s every bit as much as the allied forces, gave us Mickey Mouse, whose image, along with Elvis Presley and Jesus Christ, ranks among the most instantly recognizable worldwide.

Andy Warhol, who shared the '60s with the Beatles, gave us Pop: Campbell's soup cans writ large, a worship of celebrity, and, in the best democratic tradition, 15 minutes each of fame.

Keith Haring, who died two years ago at age 31, is their most obvious heir. He admired Disney and Warhol above all others, and it is his work - deft, confident, wry, bursting with life - that forms the foundation of the current Tacoma Art Museum exhibition.

Haring launched his brief career 10 years ago in New York, where he arrived from Curtisville, Pa., near Warhol's native Pittsburgh. Haring consciously removed himself from the insular art world, making his initial mark as a graffiti artist in New York's subway system.

He learned to work quickly, without preparatory sketches - because he had to. Delay meant arrest. He once estimated that during that time he whipped off 5,000 drawings in his simple, utterly unique style: vibrant interlocking figures, exuberant dancing figures, glowing figures of babies, and more.

Much of the subway work was lost, as Haring intended. For him, it was temporary work by its very nature. In fact, he knew it was time to change direction when art collectors began going down into the tunnels after him to slice his work free and mount it in their homes.

But the confidence and verve that work brought to Haring's style can be seen in Tacoma, in a show curated and premiered by the Phoenix Art Museum last spring. The Tacoma show is an exclusive West Coast exhibition - the nearly 200 pieces of art will move on to the East Coast next summer.

It is a show well worth seeing. Haring's work dominates, of course - the entire show finds its focus in his "Andy Mouse," a warm and hilarious homage to his heroes - but Warhol and Disney are surprisingly well served, too, despite their limited representation.

Warhol's familiar Jackie Onassis and Mao Tse-Tung prints are present, along with a stack of Kellogg's Corn Flakes boxes. A series of prints from his 1981 "Myths" project is included, which features a wonderful hodgepodge of images: Superman, Dracula, Howdy Doody, the wicked witch from "The Wizard of Oz," Warhol himself, and more.

Warhol's portrait of Keith Haring, with Juan Du Bose, is also included. Warhol and Haring met in 1983 and became close friends. As usual, Warhol's work has a baffling presence, unsettling in its lack of passion and pure superficiality. The first impulse, always, is to laugh - but exactly at what is not clear, and finally it becomes a disturbing, unquieting impulse.

Disney works more easily on the surfaces, and the samples of his company's "cels" (paintings or drawings on celluloid, used for animation purposes), working drawings, and publicity posters are often breathtaking in their technical mastery.

Haring loved children - hardly surprising, given the childlike powers of his work. Fittingly enough, their needs are served as well in this exhibit. Designer Greg Bell has built a children's corner into the first floor gallery, where paintings are hung extra low, and flip books and other objects are available for children to touch.