(b Reading, PA, 4 May 1958; d New York, 16 Feb
1990)
He graduated from Kutztown Area Senior High School
in 1976 and spent some time travelling across America before studying
at the Art Centre in Pittsburgh.
In 1978 he moved to New York to attend the School
of Visual Arts, where his original approach was soon apparent
in graffiti-inspired symbols expanded into large-scale designs
of generative energy.
At the height of the Punk Rock movement in the
late 1970s he participated in the lively New York club scene,
working with such street artists as ‘Samo’ (Jean-Michel
Basquiat, b 1960). In the summer of 1980 he took up drawing, inventing
intricate cartoon-style murals of mutant figures locked in hyper-physical
engagement.
He was a meteoric star in American art during
the 1980s, exhibiting and working on projects throughout the USA,
Europe and Asia, and his work became a symbol of the tribal undercurrents
that permeate metropolitan life. His accessible imagery stems
as much from Islamic and Japanese art as the sign language of
contemporary culture.
In 1986 the artist opened his own retail outlet,
The Pop Shop, in New York and was continuously engaged in projects
of an extraordinarily diverse nature, from murals on the Berlin
Wall to paintings on hot air balloons, motor cars and decorative
accessories. A giant ‘spectacolour’ billboard broadcast
his famous Radiant Child image in Times Square, first in 1982.
He fell victim to the AIDS epidemic in 1988 and died at the age
of 31.
- Bibliography
- L. Castelli: Beyond the Canvas
(New York, 1985)
H. Fox: Avant-garde in the Eighties (Los Angeles, 1987)
J. Gruen: Keith Haring (London, 1991)
© Oxford University Press 2004 - Grove
Art Online, (Oxford University Press, Accessed 15th February
2005) <http://www.groveart.com>
Chronology of Haring's Public Works
- 1981
- • Began drawing on blank advertising
panels in New York City subway stations
- 1982
- • Spectacolor Billboard, Times
Square, New York
• Printed and distributed 20,000 free posters for
June 12 anti-nuclear rally, Central Park, New York
• Painted fluorescent mural on cement handball court,
Houston Street at Bowery, New York
- 1983
- • Painted murals, Marquette
University, Milwaukee
• Painted building in Tokyo, with LA II
• Painted mural on Avenue D, New York
- 1984
- • Painted mural at National
Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
• Painted mural at Collingwood Technical School, Melbourne
• Painted mural at Art Gallery of New South Wales,
Sydney
• Painted candy store murals, Avenue D, New York
• On-site painting, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de
Janeiro
• Painted mural, Children's Village, Dobbs Ferry,
New York
• Painted mural for Asphalt Green Park, New York City
- 1985
- • Created mural and distributed
free T-shirts and balloons for Keith Haring Day at Children's
Village, Dobbs Ferry, New York
• Painted mural on handball court, P.S. 97, New York
• Painted St. Patrick's Daycare Center, San Francisco
- 1986
- • Collaborative billboards
with Jenny Holzer for Vienna Festival 86, Austria
• Painted outdoor mural, Amsterdam
• Created mural for Club DV8, San Francisco
• Painted Crack is Wack murals, New York
• Painted permanent murals at Woodhull Hospital, Brooklyn,
New York
• Painted mural at Jouets & Cie toy store, Paris
• Painted mural on Berlin Wall
• Collaborated on outdoor mural with schoolchildren
in Phoenix, on Washington and Adams Streets
- 1987
- • Painted outdoor mural at
Necker Children's Hospital, Paris
• Painted mural at Casino Knokke, Belgium
• Painted mural at Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp
• Painted mural at Team BBDO European Headquarters,
Düsseldorf, Germany
• Painted mural at Carmine Street public swimming
pool, New York City
• Collaborated on mural with Philadelphia CityKids
• Painted mural at Boys Club of New York, 135 Pitt
Street, New York
• Murals and sculpture commission, Schneider Children's
Hospital, New Hyde Park, New York
• Artist-in-residence and mural installation, Cranbrook
Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
• Collaborated on two murals with 500 children, Tama
City, Japan
- 1988
- • Easter at the White House:
painted mural erected on White House lawn, then donated to the
Children's Hospital, National Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
• Painted mural, Grady Hospital pediatrics emergency
room, Atlanta
• Painted Don't Believe the Hype mural,
Houston Street at FDR Drive, New York City
- 1989
- • Painted Together We
Can Stop AIDS mural in Barrio de Chino, Barcelona
• Designed mural to be executed by students at Wells
Community Academy, Chicago
• Artist-in-residence for Chicago public schools and
Museum of Contemporary Art mural project: painted mural with
300 high school students, Chicago
• Painted mural at The Center, a lesbian and gay community
services center, New York City
• Keith Haring Progetto Italia: a commission
by the city of Pisa to paint permanent mural on exterior wall
of Church of Santa Antonio
© Excerpted from Keith Haring,
exhibition catalogue, Whitney
Museum of American Art
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