Keith Haring: Activist and Artist

It all started with a piece of chalk in the New York City subway. 

From there, Keith Haring became a pronounced street artist as well as a powerful social activist. 

Haring was truly an artist for the people. He devoted his career to bringing awareness to important world issues. 

Among other things, he was an activist for the LGBT community and depicted his battle with AIDS throughout his career. 

Read on to learn more about the inspiring legacy that began with chalk. 

Early Life 

Keith Haring was born in 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania. His parents, Allen and Joan Haring raised Keith and his four siblings in Kutztown, PA. 

His father was an amateur cartoonist, which is where Haring first gained insight into the art world. Haring soon developed a passion and niche for illustrating and drawing. 

From a very early age, Haring immersed himself in his artistic learning. He often reproduced his favorite illustrations from Disney and Dr. Suess. 

Haring’s early love of illustrating set up his success later in life. 

Education

After Haring graduated high school, he enrolled in the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburg. It was there that Haring planned to study commercial art, following his father. 

However, after two semesters, Haring decided not to pursue graphic art and dropped out of school. 

He then studied and worked on his own for a few years. In 1978, Haring traded the countryside of Pennsylvania for the bustling city of New York. 

After his move to the city, he enrolled in the NY School of Visual Arts. 

During his studies in New York, Haring experimented with many different art methods. He played with video, collage, and more media installments. However, he always kept his strong commitment to drawing and illustration. 

After finishing his education, Haring’s next step was to make his work available to the public. And he chose to showcase it in the heart of the city: the NYC subway. 

 

Early Career 

In the early 1980’s, Haring began creating hundreds of illustrations on advertising boards in the subway system. These illustrations were soon coined his “subway series”. 

Back then, the city used black stock paper to cover up old marketing ads in the subway stations. Haring used this black paper as his canvas for each illustration he created. 

Haring’s subway series opened up a lot of opportunities for upcoming artists. He drew over 5,000 chalk illustrations throughout subway stations between 1980-1985.

Soon after in 1986, he opened up his own retail store called the Pop Shop. Haring’s store sold shirts, posters, magnets, and even toys all bearing his artwork. 

The inspiration behind his store was to allow his work to be available at low costs. The artist also considered his shop to be an extension of his work. 

For this reason, he painted the entire interior of the store an abstract, black and white mural. Although opened with good intentions, Haring’s store drew massive criticism. 

Critics saw it as Haring’s way of focusing on a price tag and selling out. However, Haring remained committed to making his work available to everyone-not only those who could afford it. 

 

Success and Social Activism 

Throughout Haring’s later career, he designed many public projects. These projects included billboards for Times Square, sets for theater backdrops, and even worldwide murals. 

He produced more than 50 public artworks and projects by the end of 1989. All of which were featured in dozens of cities worldwide for charities, hospitals, and orphanages. 

Haring also created a mural for the 100th-anniversary celebration of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. Other projects include a mural on the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris, and another painted on the Berlin Wall, three years before its destruction. 

In 1988, Haring was diagnosed with AIDS. For the rest of his career, he remained open about his sexuality and his battle with the disease. 

In response to his diagnosis, he started the Keith Haring Foundation. His mission for the foundation was to provide funding to AIDS organizations and children’s programs. 

Throughout his battle with AIDS, Haring depicted his experience with art. Instead of retreating or retiring, the artist allowed his diagnosis to fuel and focus his artwork. 

In the late 1980’s, Haring created several AIDS awareness campaigns using his imagery. His famous Ignorance=Fear of 1989, depicted how Haring felt about the public’s view of AIDS. 

Haring believed that society was not giving the AIDS epidemic the attention it deserved. He believed this was the case due to the unfair and unjust stigma surrounding the disease. 

Haring became a powerful voice of the LGBT community as well as an ally in the fight against AIDS. He spent the rest of his career fighting the same disease he was bringing awareness to. 

 

Death 

Keith Haring died of AIDS-related complications in February of 1990 at the age of 31. His memorial service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York had over 1,000 people in attendance. 

Haring not only left his legacy of art behind, but he also left a journal of his own words as well. 

The Keith Haring Foundation later published select pages from his journal for the public to read. A larger selection of his journal was also published by Penguin Classics.

On March 20, 1987, Haring made the following remark in his journal: “I always knew, since I was young, that I would die young. But I thought it would be fast (an accident, not a disease). In fact, a man-made disease like AIDS. Time will tell that I am not scared. I live every day as if it were the last. I love life.”

 

Famous Works 

 

 

After Haring relocated to New York in 1978, he began studying at the School of Visual Arts. There, he fell in love with the multicultural, urban community that inspired his lively works. 

During the early 80’s, Haring began experimenting with chalk graffiti. Haring’s commonplace to create these works was the city’s subways. 

He created his drawings on the black paper that the city placed over unused advertising spaces. His “subway drawings” often depicted bold, wild imagery. 

 

 

Keith Haring was open about his sexuality and his part in the LGBT community. He became a powerful ally within the community and his work was evidence of his pride. 

This piece, which he created in 1982, is considered one of his early works. He depicts two figures with a radiant heart shining above them. 

Many critics consider this piece a significant cultural statement made by the artist. 

 

 

During 1984-1988, Haring experimented with the art movement, neo-expressionism. He put his lively spin on his own works. 

Haring created neo-expressionist scenes but still added pop art twists. 

Around this time, Haring was well-known for his characteristic graphic style. Many of his early works depict monsters, worms, skeletons, and other dark imagery. 

 

 

Crack is Wack is Keith Haring’s most popular work. The mural was created in 1986 at East 128th Street in East Harlem, NY. 

During this time, crack cocaine was rampant in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. Public concerns over the drug grew as it became popular in poor neighborhoods. 

Haring created his mural to serve as a warning against the drug. This piece is an example of Haring’s powerful presence as a social activist. 

 

 

In 1988, Haring was diagnosed with AIDS. Among the AIDS crisis and his new diagnosis, Haring’s work focused on bringing awareness to the LGBT community. 

Haring wanted to speak out against the stigma of the disease and society’s way of ignoring it. Two years later he created his famous Ignorance= Fear to raise money for the epidemic. 

 

 

Also in 1989, Haring created his well-known Pop Shop III. Three years prior, Haring opened up his retail store, the Pop Shop in SOHO. 

His store sold graphic t-shirts and other products with Haring’s popular work. The artist’s main inspiration for creating his store was to make his work available to the public.

For this reason, many artists respected Haring and his public work agenda. Haring believed art should be more available to the working class. 

Andy Warhol, who had similar beliefs and standards, applauded Haring’s work. 

 

 

One of Haring’s signature icons is his Radiant Baby. Most of Haring’s work depicted concepts of birth, death, love, and sex. 

His Radiant Baby represented the purity and innocence of youth. With his universal concepts, Haring was able to attract a wide audience of viewers. 

The simple, yet bold outlines of his icons became universally recognized in the 20th century. By this time, Haring’s work was featured in over 100 exhibitions. 

 

 

During the last years of Haring’s life, he created many works that depicted the reality of living with AIDS. 

His passion and love for his community were created on each canvas. In typical Haring fashion, this piece depicts his usual oversized outlines. 

Critics say this piece depicts how the AIDS community was neglected by society. The hunched-over figure represents the severity and urgency of the epidemic. 

Haring devoted much of his career to bringing awareness to AIDS as well as trying to eliminate the stigma that follows the disease.