I wanna dedicated this little space for one true real artist and person a true fighter: Keith Haring Today, May 4th, would’ve been his 58th birthday.
So let’s review some of his art, personal viewing and high lights.
He was an American artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s by expressing concepts of birth, death, sexuality, and war. Haring’s work was often heavily political and his imagery has become a widely recognized visual language of the 20th century.
By 1982, Haring had established friendships with fellow emerging artists Futura 2000, Kenny Scharf, Madonna and Jean-Michel Basquiat. He created more than 50 public works between 1982 and 1989 in dozens of cities around the world. Its my favorite time when he designed some combos, a cool Jacket she performed “Dress You Up” in a Keith Haring outfit at Haring’s birthday party at Paradise Garage in New York on May 16, 1984.
Haring also created public murals in the lobby and ambulatory care department of Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center on Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn.
A rare video of Haring at work shows his energetic style. Haring wrote: “I am becoming much more aware of movement. The importance of movement is intensified when a painting becomes a performance. The performance (the act of painting) becomes as important as the resulting painting.”
Haring was openly gay and was a strong advocate of safe sex; however, in 1988, he was diagnosed with AIDS. In 1989, he established the Keith Haring Foundation to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organizations and children’s programs, and to expand the audience for his work through exhibitions, publications and the licensing of his images. Haring used his imagery during the last years of his life to speak about his illness and to generate activism and awareness about AIDS. In 1989, he was invited by the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center to join a show of site-specific artwork for the building at 208 West 13th Street.
I can’t enlist and mention all his brilliance work in here, but one thing I let you know. Will be following for decades. I know his name is reaching out in the American Pop Culture. But you know what, his legacy is still on demain around the world. Check out this essentials, never passing away.
Check out more at haring.com
