Keith Haring
Keith Haring UNTITLED, 1982 (COUPLE IN BLACK, RED, AND GREEN) Print
Details
Keith Haring UNTITLED, 1982 (COUPLE IN BLACK, RED, AND GREEN) Print
16 x 16 inch on 22 x 20 inch paper
© 2017 Keith Haring Foundation.
About the Artist :
Keith Haring was born in Pennsylvania in 1958; at age 19, he moved to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts, pursuing his dream of becoming an artist. In New York, he discovered the thriving alternative art world of the downtown streets,subways and nightclubs. Haring soon became one of the best-known artists responding to the urban culture of the 1980s. Drawing in white chalk on the black paper then used to cover expired advertising panels in the subway stations, Haring developed a vocabulary of images that would become his signature: the radiant baby, the barking dog, and the running figure. By 1982, Haring was exhibiting in galleries and museums around the world, and also participating in public projects, including literacy campaigns and AIDS awareness initiatives. Haring utilized a variety of media in order to communicate essential themes such as birth, death, love and war to a mass audience. Keith Haring was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 and died of AIDS-related complications in 1990. Since his death he has been the subject of several international retrospectives, and his work is held in major private and public collections. Although his career was brief, his imagery has become a universally recognized visual language of the 20th century.
Keith Haring
Bridging the gap between the art world and the street, Keith Haring rose to prominence in the early 1980s with his graffiti drawings made in the subways and on the sidewalks of New York City. Combining the appeal of cartoons with the raw energy of Art Brut artists like Jean DuBuffet, Haring developed a distinct pop-graffiti aesthetic centered on fluid, bold outlines against a dense, rhythmic overspread of imagery like that of babies, barking dogs, flying saucers, hearts, and Mickey Mouse. In his subway drawings and murals, Haring explored themes of exploitation, subjugation, drug abuse, and rising fears of nuclear holocaust, which became increasingly apocalyptic after his AIDS diagnosis. Alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, and Jenny Holzer, Haring is regarded as a leading figure in New York East Village Art scene in the 1970s and '80s.
