“I could earn more money if I just painted a few things and jacked up the price,” Haring once remarked, “but that’s not what I’m about.”
Keith Haring is arguably one of the most influential artists in art history. Born in 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania and grew up in nearby Kutztown, where he developed a passion for drawing inspired by his father and popular culture like Dr Seuss and Walt Disney. After a brief stint at art school in Pittsburgh, he moved to New York in 1978 to study at the School of Visual Arts.
Immersed in the city’s vibrant downtown scene, Haring befriended artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and began showing his work in alternative spaces such as Club 57. Influenced by figures from Andy Warhol to Jean Dubuffet, he set out to create an art that was public, direct and accessible to everyone.
In the early 1980s Haring found his perfect canvas in the New York subway. Using white chalk on unused advertising panels, he created hundreds of bold, rhythmic drawings that commuters quickly came to recognise. This period marked the beginning of his rise to international fame, leading to major exhibitions and large-scale public projects around the world. Haring embraced commercial collaborations, most famously through his Pop Shop in Soho, where he sold affordable art merchandise as an extension of his mission to make art for all.
Public art and activism were central to Haring’s work. He produced over 50 public projects for charities, hospitals and schools, often addressing social issues such as AIDS awareness and anti-drug campaigns. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, he established the Keith Haring Foundation the following year to support children’s programs and AIDS organisations.
Haring died in 1990 at the age of 31, leaving behind a powerful visual legacy of bold lines, vivid imagery and messages that remain universally recognised today.