Archive: Keith Haring, Feb.16, 1990
deb...@comcast.net
raised in nearby Kutztown, Pennsylvania. He 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.
Upon graduation from high school in 1976, Haring enrolled in the Ivy
School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh, a commercial arts school. He
soon realized that he had little interest in becoming a commercial
graphic artist and, after two semesters, dropped out. While in
Pittsburgh, Haring continued to study and work on his own and in 1978
had a solo exhibition of his work at the Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts
Center.
Later that same year, Haring moved to New York City and enrolled in the
School of Visual Arts (SVA). In New York, Haring found a thriving
alternative art community that was developing outside the gallery and
museum system, in the downtown streets, the subways and spaces in clubs
and former dance halls. Here he became friends with fellow artists
Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as the musicians,
performance artists and graffiti writers that comprised the burgeoning
art community. Haring was swept up in the energy and spirit of this
scene and began to organize and participate in exhibitions and
performances at Club 57 and other alternative venues.
In addition to being impressed by the innovation and energy of his
contemporaries, Haring was also inspired by the work of Jean Dubuffet,
Pierre Alechinsky, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Robert Henri's
manifesto The Art Spirit, which asserted the fundamental independence
of the artist. With these influences Haring was able to push his own
youthful impulses toward a singular kind of graphic expression based on
the primacy of the line. Also drawn to the public and participatory
nature of Christo's work, in particular Running Fence, and by Andy
Warhol's unique fusion of art and life, Haring was determined to
devote his career to creating a truly public art.
As a student at SVA, Haring experimented with performance, video,
installation and collage, while always maintaining a strong commitment
to drawing. In 1980, Haring found a highly effective medium that
allowed him to communicate with the wider audience he desired, when he
noticed the unused advertising panels covered with matte black paper in
a subway station. He began to create drawings in white chalk upon these
blank paper panels throughout the subway system. Between 1980 and 1985,
Haring produced hundreds of these public drawings in rapid rhythmic
lines, sometimes creating as many as forty "subway drawings" in one
day. This seamless flow of images became familiar to New York
commuters, who often would stop to engage the artist when they
encountered him at work. The subway became, as Haring said, a
"laboratory" for working out his ideas and experimenting with his
simple lines.
Between 1980 and 1986, Haring achieved international recognition and
participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions. His first solo
exhibition in New York, held at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in 1982, was
immensely popular and received critical acclaim. During this period, he
participated in highly renowned international survey exhibitions such
as Documenta 7 in Kassel Germany, the São Paulo Biennial and the
Whitney Biennial. Haring completed numerous public projects in the
first half of the 80's as well, ranging from an animation for the
Spectracolor billboard in Times Square, designing sets and backdrops
for theaters and clubs, to developing watch designs for Swatch and
creating murals worldwide.
In April 1986, Haring opened the Pop Shop, a retail store in Soho
selling T-shirts, toys, posters, buttons and magnets bearing his
images. Haring considered the shop to be an extension of his work and
painted the entire interior of the store in an abstract black on white
mural, creating a striking and unique retail environment. The shop was
intended to allow people greater access to his work, which was now
readily available on products at a low cost. The shop received
criticism from many in the art world, however Haring remained committed
to his desire to make his artwork available to as wide an audience as
possible, and received strong support for his project from friends,
fans and mentors including Andy Warhol.
Throughout his career, Haring devoted much of his time to public works,
which often carried social messages. He produced more than 50 public
artworks between 1982 and 1989, in dozens of cities around the world,
many of which were created for charities, hospitals, children's day
care centers and orphanages. The now famous Crack is Wack mural of 1986
has become a landmark along New York's FDR Drive. Other projects
include; a mural created for the 100th anniversary of the Statue of
Liberty in 1986, on which Haring worked with 900 children; a mural on
the exterior of Necker Children's Hospital in Paris, France in 1987;
and a mural painted on the western side of the Berlin Wall three years
before its fall. Haring also held drawing workshops for children in
schools and museums in New York, Amsterdam, London, Tokyo and Bordeaux,
and produced imagery for many literacy programs and other public
service campaigns.
Haring was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988. In 1989, 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 special projects
and collaborated with artists and performers such as Madonna, Grace
Jones, Bill T. Jones, William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Jenny Holzer
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.
Keith Haring died of AIDS related complications at the age of 31 on
February 16, 1990. A memorial service was held on May 4, 1990 at the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, with over 1,000
people in attendance.
Since his death, he has been the subject of several international
retrospectives. The work of Keith Haring can be seen today in the
exhibitions and collections of major museums around the world.
(Official Keith Haring site)
Brad Ferguson
<deb...@comcast.net> wrote:
> As a student at SVA, Haring experimented with performance, video,
> installation and collage, while always maintaining a strong commitment
> to drawing. In 1980, Haring found a highly effective medium that
> allowed him to communicate with the wider audience he desired, when he
> noticed the unused advertising panels covered with matte black paper in
> a subway station. He began to create drawings in white chalk upon these
> blank paper panels throughout the subway system. Between 1980 and 1985,
> Haring produced hundreds of these public drawings in rapid rhythmic
> lines, sometimes creating as many as forty "subway drawings" in one
> day. This seamless flow of images became familiar to New York
> commuters, who often would stop to engage the artist when they
> encountered him at work. The subway became, as Haring said, a
> "laboratory" for working out his ideas and experimenting with his
> simple lines.
I saw him do it once, in 1980 or 1981. It was at the 77th Street stop
on the Lex. Haring was on the uptown side; I was heading downtown. He
worked very quickly, and kept on working even when a cop came by and
told him to stop. I watched as Haring, still down on his haunces and
still drawing, talked the cop out of whatever it was the cop wanted to
do to him.