Keith Haring

Biography

b. 1958, Pennsylvania, United States

Keith Haring had a short but prolific career that revolved around a vision to unite high-art, urban aesthetics, and public spaces, in humorous, irreverent, and poignant artworks. Born in Pennsylvania, Haring attended the Ivy School of Art in Pittsburgh for two years, planning to become a commercial artist. He found this path unsatisfying and instead chose to study at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he met fellow artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Scharf. Haring immersed himself in the culture of the city’s streets and clubs, and in 1980, began covering the blank billboards on subway station walls with his Subway drawings in chalk. Haring’s artwork combines cartoon imagery with graffiti, hip-hop, and urban aesthetics, frequently depicting animals, figures, commercial icons, sexual imagery, and childlike motifs in pieces both playful and apprehensive.