Keith Haring

He was gay. In 1988, he was diagnosed with AIDS. In later period of his life, he played active role in raising awareness about the deadly diseases like AIDS.

He passed away on account of AIDS related complications at the age of 31. More than 1000 people attended his funeral service that was organized at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.

Keith Haring was born to cartoonist father Allen Haring and mother Joan Haring in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States. He also had three sisters. He developed his love towards art since his early childhood days.

As a child, he used to spent time for drawing activity along with his father. He completed his graduation from Kutztown Area Senior High School in 1976. From 1976 to 1978, he attended The Ivy School of Professional Art, Pittsburgh to study commercial art.

During this time, he organized a solo exhibition of his art work at the Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts Centre. After spending two semesters, when he lost interest in commercial art, he switched to Fine Arts.

After his arrival in New York City in 1978, he took admission at the School of Visual Art to study semiotics. In New York, he became acquainted with a new alternative art community.

This art community introduced him with graffiti, a new style of art that flourished in the downtown streets and places like the subways. During this time, he befriended with several artists, musicians and graffiti writers.

In 1980, he started creating drawings with white chalk on the matte black paper that he found over the unused advertising panels in a subway station. From 1980 to 1985, he created numerous art works in a number of subway stations.

His graffiti reflected his creativity and ideas through presenting simple lines. Sometimes, he used to create forty subway drawings per day. Gradually, his creation of graffiti work gained popularity among New York commuters.

He organized his first solo exhibition in New York at the Westbeth Painters Space in 1981. In the following year, he exhibited his art work at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery.

He also took part in several international survey exhibitions which included the Sao Paolo Biennial, the Whitney Biennial and Documenta 7 in Kassel. At that time, he worked for an animation project for the billboard of Spectacolor in Times Square.

He even designed sets and backdrops of several theatres and clubs. One of his projects for renowned brands included creating watch designs for Swatch. Brands like Absolut vodka used his art work during its advertising campaign.

In 1986, he created the mural of Crack Is Wack. Through the mural’s kinetic figures and abstract forms, he attempted to raise awareness among youth against the usage of Crack, a type of cocaine.