Keith Haring

Known for his illustrations and public art, Keith Haring was born on May 4, 1958, in Reading, Pennsylvania.  He attended the Ivy School for Professional Art in Pittsburgh, but he determined that commercial art was not for him. He dropped out after two semesters to pursue his own drawing career. He moved to New York city and enrolled in the School of Visual Arts, where he quickly became involved in the downtown art scene and met artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, and Andy Warhol. While at SVA, Haring experimented with many types of art, but he always went back to a focus on drawing. Interested in public art, he began to create images on unused advertising panels in the subway and gravitated toward graffiti culture. He had his first solo exhibition in 1981 at the Westbeth Painters Space, and in 1982, he held a show at Tony Shafazi Gallery in Soho. His work was featured in more than 100 solo shows, and he also continued to produce murals and public art across the globe. In 1988, he was diagnosed with AIDS and established the Keith Haring Foundation in 1989. In the last years of this life, his art became focused on promoting AIDS awareness and activism. He died on February 16, 1990, at the age of 31. His work is featured in many prominent institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Available Works