Modern & Contemporary Artists Codexery

Keith Haring

American artist and activist known for his bold, graphic imagery and subway chalk drawings.

Last updated

Keith Haring

Luis Alvaz · CC BY-SA 4.0

Keith Allen Haring was born on May 4, 1958, in Reading, Pennsylvania, and raised in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.[1][2] AIDS-related complications caused Haring's death on February 16, 1990, inside his Greenwich Village residence on LaGuardia Place.[3]

Life and work

Haring studied commercial art at Pittsburgh's Ivy School of Professional Art from 1976 to 1978, then moved to New York City to study painting at the School of Visual Arts.[4][5][2] Haring died of AIDS-related complications at age 31 on February 16, 1990.[3][2] Public notice of Haring's work initially arose from his white chalk drawings on vacant black advertising panels within New York City subway stations, a practice he started in December 1980.[6][2] The crawling infant with light rays, called the Radiant Baby, served as Haring's signature tag and evolved into his most recognizable icon.[6][7]

During 1982, Haring's work was shown at documenta 7 in Kassel, and he also had a solo show at SoHo's Tony Shafrazi Gallery.[8][9] Haring was a gay man who employed his art to promote safe sex practices.[10] Funding for AIDS organizations and children's programs became the purpose of the Keith Haring Foundation, which Haring created in 1989.[11][2]

What the cited sources add

The Keith Haring Foundation biography states that between 1980 and 1985, Haring produced hundreds of subway drawings, sometimes creating as many as forty in one day.[2] The Mural Arts Philadelphia account describes "We the Youth" as the only Keith Haring collaborative public mural remaining intact and on its original site.[12] That account also reports that the mural underwent a major restoration in 2013.[12][13] The Square Madonna Unapologetic News account notes that Haring organized art shows at the Mudd Club and performed at Club 57.[14]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gruen 1991, p. x; Gooch, "Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring", HarperCollins, March 5, 2024 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "Bio (archived)", The Keith Haring Foundation. facts only, no text reused. haring.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Young, "See Inside Keith Haring's Last Apartment in NYC", Untapped New York, September 17, 2020; Yarrow, "Keith Haring, artist, Dies at 31; Career Began in Subway Graffiti", The New York Times, February 17, 1990; "Pennsylvania Heritage", Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2006, p. 40 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gruen 1991, p. x; Phillips, "The Radiant (Christ) Child Keith Haring and the Jesus Movement", American Art, Fall 2007, p. 54–73; Sheff, "Keith Haring: Just Say Know", August 10, 1989; "Arts / Notable Alumni", Kutztown Area School District; "Bio (archived)", The Keith Haring Foundation; "Keith Haring", encyclopedia.com (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Intersecting Icons: Keith Haring, Madonna, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol", Square Madonna Unapologetic News (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kates, "Beneath the Ground, Chalking It Up to Art", Daily News, 1982-06-02, p. M3; Gruen 1991, p. x; "Bio Keith Haring", www.haring.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Phillips, "The Radiant (Christ) Child Keith Haring and the Jesus Movement", American Art, Fall 2007, p. 54–73; Kates, "Beneath the Ground, Chalking It Up to Art", Daily News, 1982-06-02, p. M3; Nadelman, "Graffiti is a Thing That's Kind of Hard to Explain", ARTnews, October 1982, p. 76-77 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "documenta 7 – Retrospective – documenta", www.documenta.de; "Past -Group Shows Keith Haring", The Keith Haring Foundation; "Tony Shafrazi Gallery Artists Keith Haring > Exhibitions", www.tonyshafrazigallery.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gruen 1991, p. x; "The Top 10 Secrets of Westbeth Artist Housing, Former Bell Labs Research Facility in NYC – Page 5 of 11", Untapped New York, October 11, 2018; Wallace, "Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and New York in the 1980s – in pictures", The Guardian, November 27, 2019; "Keith Haring in the Village", Village Preservation, April 16, 2012; "Remembering Keith Haring Through Stories From Those Who Knew Him", AnOther, September 24, 2020; Phillips, "The Radiant (Christ) Child Keith Haring and the Jesus Movement", American Art, Fall 20 en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Steele, "Keith Haring", Out, May 2005, p. 46; Frisby, "Keith Haring: Artist and HIV/AIDS activist", June 10, 2021; Haring, "Keith Haring: Journey of the Radiant Baby", Bunker Hill Publishing, Inc., 2006, p. 18; Hamilton, "Artist With AIDS Races the Clock to Spread His Message: Art: The painter, who started his career by scrawling graffiti on subway cars, was at Art Center to paint a mural for 'A Day Without Art.'", Los Angeles (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "About the Keith Haring Foundation", www.haring.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Weinik, "We The Youth", Mural Arts Philadelphia. facts only, no text reused. muralarts.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Keith Haring" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Weinik, "We The Youth", Mural Arts Philadelphia (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  14. "Intersecting Icons: Keith Haring, Madonna, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol", Square Madonna Unapologetic News. facts only, no text reused. squaremadonna.wordpress.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Keith Haring (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Named in this entry

Pop artHomosexualityLGBTQ peopleDr. SeussThe Bugs Bunny ShowJean DubuffetJackson PollockLower East Side

More in Modern & Contemporary Artists

Christo and Jeanne-ClaudeCindy ShermanClaes OldenburgCy TwomblyDamien HirstDonald JuddEva HesseFaith RinggoldFélix González-TorresHannah HöchHelen FrankenthalerHilma af Klint

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →