Keith Haring

Keith Haring

Keith Haring was born on May 4, 1958, in Reading, Pennsylvania. In 1978, when he moved to New York City to study at the School of Visual Arts, he began making colorful chalk drawings in subway stations. His art was eventually seen everywhere around the world. He was also known for his effort in making people aware of AIDS. When he died of his HIV-infection on February 16, 1990, he had only reached 31 years of age.

Haring is one of the most popular graffiti artists in the world.

He drew his artworks on pasted over advertising spaces in subway stations; however he never painted a train.

He was fascinated by the thought of reaching people who would never visit a museum or an exhibition.

He is known for the colorful backgrounds, the multicolored figures with black outlines and his mind-blowing symbolism.

His signature was unique, for example his dancing figures, a barking dog, the "radiant baby" (crawling infant emitting light), an alien spaceship and figures with TVs for heads.

The topics of his artworks:

A           Perversion of religion

A           AIDS

A           Racism

A           Capitalism

A           Sexuality

A           Drugs

A           Nuclear power

A           Apocalypse

A           War

A           Death

Haring was creating something that was looking like meaningless but actually it was meaningful.

Keith Haring was a very modest person; he never requested for money, nor did he seek for attention.

He just wanted to do something and send this something as a message to the threatened world.

I’ve found a very cool and short video about Keith Haring. It’s worth watching!