Keith Haring American, 1958-1990
Keith Haring's work was known for his fluid, uniform lines, intricate compositions, and repeating imagery such as the barking dog and radiant baby. He made chalk drawings in New York subway stations and murals all over the world, worked with youth, frequently collaborated across disciplines, and took on commercial projects. Haring’s public works were often made illicitly, and dynamic immediacy is a hallmark of his style.
Born on May 4, 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania, Haring developed a love for drawing at a very early age, learning basic cartooning skills from his father and from the popular culture around him, such as Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney.
In 1989, after being diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, he established the Keith Haring Foundation, its mandate being to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organizations and children’s programs, and to expand the audience for Haring’s work through exhibitions, publications and the licensing of his images. Haring enlisted his imagery during the last years of his life to speak about his own illness and generate activism and awareness about AIDS.
During a brief but intense career that spanned the 1980s, Haring’s work was featured in over 100 solo and group exhibitions. In 1986 alone, he was the subject of more than 40 newspaper and magazine articles. He was highly sought after to participate in collaborative projects ,and worked with artists and performers as diverse as Madonna, Grace Jones, Bill T. Jones, William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol. By expressing universal concepts of birth, death, love, sex and war, using a primacy of line and directness of message, Haring was able to attract a wide audience and assure the accessibility and staying power of his imagery, which has become a universally recognized visual language of the 20th century.