Keith Haring Biography

Keith Haring was born to Joan and Allen Haring on May 4, 1958. Keith Haring grew up in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, and was the oldest of four brothers and sisters. Haring's artistic talents were quite evident from a very early age.

Art continued to be a main interest throughout Keith's experimental and rather rebellious adolescence. Through books and museum visits Keith began to develop an awareness of modern art. Keith saw his first Andy Warhol Screenprints on a church visit to the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C. After high school, Keith enrolled in the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh.

In 1976, Keith Haring hitchhiked cross-country, stopping along the way to look at other art programs. When Keith returned to Pittsburgh later that year, he sat in on classes at the University of Pittsburgh, and eventually became involved with the Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts Center, where he had his first important show.

Keith Haring began working with a vocabulary of small, interconnected abstract shapes. At the same time, Keith began to discover some of his most important influences among modern artists. Elements that would become central to Keith's style were beginning to emerge.

Haring Haring was know as a workaholic, like Andy Warhol, and he created thousands of images, donating murals to children's hospitals and promoting AIDS awareness. The artist, Keith Haring, died of AIDS in 1990, at the age of 31. Despite his short life, Keith made a big impression in the Art world and his artwork is collected and displayed throught out the world.

Keith Haring Chronology

In 1981, Keith Haring began drawing on blank advertising panels in New York City subway stations.

In 1982, Keith Haring made the Spectacolor Billboard in Times Square, New York. Keith printed and distributed 20,000 free posters for the June 12 anti-nuclear rally located in Central Park, New York. Keith also painted fluorescent murals on the cement handball court on Houston Street at the Bowery, New York.

In 1983, Keith Haring painted murals at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI., a building in Tokyo with LA II and a mural on Avenue D in New York.

In 1984, Keith Haring painted murals at National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, the Collingwood Technical School in Melbourne, Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney Australia, candy store murals on Avenue D in New York, ,on-site painting, at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro, a mural, at the Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and a mural for Asphalt Green Park in New York City.

In 1985, Keith Haring created a mural and distributed free T-shirts and balloons for Keith Haring Day at Children's Village, in Dobbs Ferry, New York, painted a mural on a handball court, P.S. 97, in New York City, and painted a mural at St. Patrick's Daycare Center, in San Francisco, ca.

In 1986, Keith haring collaborated on billboards with Jenny Holzer for the Vienna Festival 86 in Austria, painted outdoor mural,in Amsterdam, created a mural for Club DV8 in San Francisco, CA, painted Crack is Wack murals in New York City, painted permanent murals at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, painted a mural at Jouets & Cie toy store in Paris, France, painted a mural on the Berlin Wall in Germany and collaborated on an outdoor mural with school children in Phoenix, Arizona on Washington and Adams Streets.

In 1987, Keith Haring painted an outdoor mural at the Necker Children's Hospital in Paris, France, painted a mural at Casino Knokke in Belgium, painted a mural at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Antwerp, painted a mural at Team BBDO at the European Headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany, painted a mural at the Carmine Street public swimming pool in New York City. Keith Haring also collaborated on a mural with the Philadelphia City Kids, painted a mural at the Boys Club of New York City, painted murals and a sculpture commission for the Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York, an artist-in-residence and mural installation, at the Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and collaborated on two murals with 500 children in Tama City, Japan.

In 1988, Keith Haring had Easter at the White House: painted a mural erected on White House lawn, and then donated it to the Children's Hospital, National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Keith also painted a mural at Grady Hospital pediatrics emergency room in Atlanta, GA, painted Don't Believe the Hype mural on Houston Street at FDR Drive, New York City.

In 1989, Keith painted the Together We Can Stop AIDS mural in Barrio de Chino in Barcelona, Spain, designed a mural to be executed by students at the Wells Community Academy in Chicago, Illinois, painted for the artist-in-residence for the Chicago public schools and Museum of Contemporary Art mural project: painted mural with 300 high school students in Chicago Illinois, painted a mural at The Center, a lesbian and gay community services center in New York City, Keith Haring Progetto Italia: a commission by the city of Pisa to paint permanent mural on exterior wall of Church of Santa Antonio.

- Excerpted from Keith Haring, exhibition catalogue, Whitney Museum of American Art -