Keith Haring

Keith Haring

La Paz Community School Miss Raquel

Keith Haring

Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.

Haring's work was often heavily political and his imagery has become a widely recognized visual language of the 20th century.

Keith Haring was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on May 4, 1958. He was raised in Kutztown, Pennsylvania by his mother, Joane Haring, and father, Allen Haring, an engineer and amateur cartoonist.

He had three younger sisters, Kay, Karen and Kristen. Haring became interested in drawing and art at a very early age. He studied commercial art from 1976 to 1978 at Pittsburgh's Ivy School of Professional Art but lost interest in commercial art.

Haring quit school and moved to New York City in 1978 at age 19. Inspired by the city's burgeoning graffiti art scene, he enrolled in Manhattan's School of Visual Arts where he majored in Painting.

• Haring achieved his first public attention with public art in subways. These were his first recognized pieces of pop art.

• Around this time, "The Radiant Baby" became his symbol. His bold lines, vivid colors, and active figures carry strong messages of life and unity.

• Starting in 1980, he organized exhibitions in Club 57

• He participated in the Times Square Exhibition and drew, for the first time, animals and human faces. That same year, he photocopied and pasted around the city provocative collages made from cut-up and recombined New York Post headlines.

• In 1981 he sketched his first chalk drawings on black paper and painted plastic, metal and found objects.

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