Keith Haring (1958-1990)

Keith Haring was an American artist and activist. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1958 and spent his younger years in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Haring studied for two semesters at the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh but dropped out upon the realisation that he was not interested in a career as a commercial graphic artist. He continued to study art, albeit independently and was successful enough at that time to have a solo exhibition in a local arts and craft center (The Keith Haring Foundation, n.d)

He later moved to New York City where he studied at the New York  School of Visual Arts (SVA). It was in New York that Haring discovered an art community that he could feel part of. He made many connections including Artist Andy Warhol. During his early years in New York Haring progressively developed his line-based oeuvre.

In those early years, Haring saw an opportunity to exhibit his art to wider audiences. He began drawing in white chalk upon the huge unused advertising hoardings throughout the New York subway system. Between 1980 and 1985, Haring produced hundreds of drawings, sometimes creating as many as forty “subway drawings” in one day Keith Haring Foundation, n.d.)

In April 1986, Haring opened a retail store in Soho selling low-cost T-shirts, toys, posters, etc. printed with his images. Sadly Haring died just four years later, in 1990, of an Aids-related condition.

Keith Haring often used his artwork to express his activist position on injustice and inequity in society. It is for this, as much as his simple messaging and pleasant aesthetic that I enjoy his work so much. His activism appeals to my rebelliousness and questioning of society’s struggle with difference.

Haring tackled subjects such as Apartheid, the political system in South Africa at that time that segregated the Black population from White, treating them as second-class citizens. The apartheid system was finally dismantled in South Africa between 1990 and 1993, coming just too later for Haring to witness for himself.

Untitled (Apartheid ), 1984, by Keith Haring. 

As a gay man, he also produced work protesting against the treatment of Gay men and the ignorance around Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV and AIDS. The Pink inverted triangle shown below refers to the pink triangle pinned to the shirts of gay men in Germany, imprisoned before and during the second world war under a law called Paragraph 175, which criminalised homosexuality. Under the Nazi government, Gay men of all denominations were added to the huge numbers of Jewish prisoners incarcerated and systematically killed in their concentration camps.

Silence=Death, 1988. Photograph: Keith Haring Foundation

GRUEN, J., 1992. Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography. New York: Fireside 

HELFAND, G., 2014. Keith Haring review: the political side of a pop-art legend [Viewed 16/11/2024]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/nov/11/keith-haring-review-the-political-side-of-a-pop-art-legend

PRIDE IN LONDON, 2023. Behind The Pink Triangle - Remembering The Nazis’ LGBTQ+ Victims [Viewed 16/11/2024]. Available from: https://prideinlondon.org/news-and-views/behind-the-pink-triangle-remembering-the-nazis-lgbtq-victims/#:~:text=In%20the%20same%20way%20that,than%20any%20other%20prisoner%20groups.

THE KEITH HARING FOUNDATION, n.d. Bio [Viewed 16/11/2024]. Available from: https://www.haring.com/!/about-haring/bio

HARING, K., 1988. Silence = Death [Viewed 16/11/2024]. Available from: https://www.haring.com/!/art-work/25