American Masters

(siren blaring) (car horn honking) He kinda took New York by storm and he was in all the magazines before he was 25. Worldwide. (drums beating) My philosophy was always that art really could communicate to larger numbers of people. Instead of the elitist group of people that could afford it and "understand it." Ninety percent or more of the people using the subways would never go to a museum on art.

That was around the time when Keith kinda went, "Bing!" I'm gonna do this. The Crawling Baby, The Dog, Flying Pyramids, Dancing Man. Turning them into his, like, own vocabulary. I was realizing the potential of images and how much power they had to speak almost as a language.

Keith had an inherent need to have a dialogue with people. For me, the art market has very little to do with what art is supposed to be. I was formally introduced to this painting here yesterday when a brother painted it. We love it, because y'all write what up.

The traditional art world didn't get that he felt that art should be as accessible as possible. (camera click) It's sort of a romantic idea of being an artist of the people. I just found a gateway to do it that was very direct. (upbeat music) He was so prolific.

I would come back the next day, and there would be, like, four new paintings and twenty drawings. Okay. I think it's more important to keep coming up with new images and things that were never made before. From painting vacant end spaces in subways, to being flown 'round the world is quite a leap.

I would say, "Keith have some of this carrot juice instead of doing a line of coke." Live as fully and as completely as you can. And deal with the future as it comes to you. He was celebrating life up to the very end. (upbeat music) (background noise)