Keith Haring

Keith Allen Haring ( born May 4, 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania, † 16 February 1990 in New York City, NY) was an American artist who was heavily influenced by graffiti.

Life and work

He grew up in Kutztown and was interested in art early on. From 1976 to 1978, he studied briefly at a commercial art school ( Ivy School of Professional Art ) in Pittsburgh advertising graphics. He broke off his studies in 1978 to move to New York. There he was greatly inspired by the emerged since the late 1960s, graffiti writing, and he also studied at the School of Visual Arts. Some of his works depict homoerotic motifs.

He first gained public attention with his chalk drawings on covered billboards in the metro New York. The presentations were held by the photographer Tseng Kwong Chi. Here also the Radiant Baby ( Baby with the aureole ) became his symbol. From 1980, he organized exhibitions in Club 57 He participated in the Times Square Exhibition and drew in part for the first time animals and human faces. In 1981 he designed his first chalk drawings on black paper and painted plastic, metal and found objects.

He participated in the New York New Wave exhibition and in 1980 at the Times Square Show. He met II (Angel Ortiz ) with the graffiti artist LA. There followed in 1982 the first solo exhibition in the Tony Shafrazi Gallery. That same year, Haring took part in Documenta 7 in Kassel. In 1983 he participated in the Whitney Biennial and the São Paulo Biennial. He got to know Andy Warhol and friends with him. For Andy Warhol, he painted an Andy Mouse, which embodies a mixture of Andy Warhol and the Mickey Mouse.

In 1984 he painted walls in Sydney, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Minneapolis and Manhattan, in 1985 he began to paint on canvas. Simultaneously, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux showed a solo exhibition from him. He also took part in the Biennale in Paris. In 1986, he opened the Pop Shop on Lafayette Street in SoHo, a store where his works and copies were sold. This store was closed in 2005. He painted walls in Amsterdam, Paris, Phoenix and in Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie on 26 October 1986. Their video for I'm not perfect and he painted the body of Grace Jones.

In 1987, he had solo exhibitions in Helsinki and Antwerp, among others. He was involved with his art at various charity campaigns against AIDS. In 1988, the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome was diagnosed in himself. For Tokyo, he drew road symbols. 1988, a branch of the pop shops opened in Tokyo, which had to be but closed again after some time. Together with children, he painted walls in Chicago and Atlanta. In 1989, he became involved in the Widespread campaign for AIDS prevention. The non-profit Keith Haring Foundation was established and an exhibition was at the Galerie 121 in Antwerp instead.

In 1990, he died two years after the diagnosis of complications from AIDS. Shortly before his death, Keith Haring painted some pictures that deal with death.

Posthumous Findings

1991 wrote the American cultural journalist and biographer John Gruen Haring's life story ( ( Keith Haring:. Authorized Biography The Simon and Schuster, New York, 1991)). Audio recordings of interviews with Haring contained in the 2008 rotated by director Christina Clausen documentary The Universe of Keith Haring (also in German translation ), which among other things Madonna and Andy Warhol as performers participated (Released 23 July 2009).

Literature and Movies

• Bernhard van Treeck: The great graffiti lexicon, lexicon -imprint -Verlag, Berlin, 2001, ISBN 3-89602 -292 X
• Bernhard van Treeck: Street Art Berlin, Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, Berlin, 1999, ISBN 3-89602-191-5
• Bernhard van Treeck: wall drawings, Edition aragon, Moers, 1995, ISBN 3-89535-424-4
• Bernhard van Treeck: Graffiti Art # 9 walls, 1998, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf ( Germany ), ISBN 3-89602-161-3
• Bernhard van Treeck: Street Art Cologne, 1996, Aragon Edition ( Germany ), ISBN 3-89535-434-1
• Gerdt Fehrle: I wish I did not sleep, 1997, Prestel ( Germany ), ISBN 3-7913-1823-3
• Willi Blöß: Biography in Comic Form: Keith Haring: Next stop: Art, Aachen 2005, ISBN 3-938182-02-4

Works in public collections

• Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney - MCA, Sydney, NSW

• MuHKA Museum voor Hedendaagse Art Antwerp, Antwerp

• Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde

• Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen
• Daimler Contemporary, Berlin eMail
• Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin
• Prints and Drawings, Berlin
• Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen
• ZKM, Karlsruhe
• Columbaria, Cologne
• Kunsthalle Weishaupt, Ulm
• Neues Museum Weimar, Weimar
• Museum am Dom, Würzburg
• Museum Villa Haiss, cell A.h.

• CAPC - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux
• MAMAC - Musee d' Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Nice

• Reggia di Caserta, Terrae Motus collection
• Ca'la Ghironda - Museo d' Arte Classica Moderna e Contemporanea, Zola Predosa (BO)

• National Gallery of Canada - Musée des beaux -arts du Canada, Ottawa, ON

• Lentos, Linz

• Berardo Museum - Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, Lisbon

• Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona - MACBA, Barcelona
• CGAC - Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela

• Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art - Budapest, Budapest

• Kennedy Museum of Art, Athens, OH
• MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA
• Castellani Art Museum, Lewiston, NY
• MOCA - The Museum of Contemporary Art - Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
• Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
• Lever House Art Collection, New York, NY
• Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
• Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, NY
• The West Collection, Oaks, PA
• Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
• Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA
• Broad Contemporary Art Museum, Santa Monica, CA
• Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
• Runnymede Sculpture Farm, Woodside, CA