Keith Haring grew up in Pennsylvania and was an activist from an early age. He learnt basic cartooning skills from his father and from the popular culture around him, such as Dr. Seuss and the Peanuts comic strip.
In one of his early works, this radian heart-love motif (shown below) would show up in many paintings and drawings throughout the rest of his career. This image of two men in love is classic Haring in its two-dimensional surface, cartoon-like simplicity and the use of vibrant colours.
His commitment to clean lines and simple images gave new life to figuration in painting, in contrast to abstract and conceptual approaches.
His pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has become widely recognized.
He produced more than 50 public artworks between 1982 and 1989, in dozens of cities around the world, many of which were for charities, hospitals, children’s day care centres and orphanages.
During his brief but intense career, Haring’s work was featured in over 100 solo and group exhibitions. In 1986 he was the subject of more than 40 newspaper and magazine articles. He was highly sought after to participate in collaborations and worked with artists and performers such as Grace Jones, Timothy Leary, Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol.
“Art should be something that liberates your soul, provokes the imagination and
– Keith Haring
encourages people to go further.”
