Keith Haring

1958 – 1990 · died at about 32^[1][2]

Art

Fun Facts About Keith Haring

• Keith Haring was arrested for painting his famous Crack Is Wack mural, and while he was in jail, someone altered it to read Crack Is It.^[1]
• Haring made his name with white chalk drawings on empty subway ad panels, and he stopped partly because people were taking the drawings and selling them.^[1]
• In 1986 Haring painted a 300-meter mural on the Berlin Wall in red, black and yellow, the colors of the German flag, as a symbol of hope for German unity.^[1]
• Vivienne Westwood turned Haring's drawings into fabric for a collection, and his friend Madonna wore a skirt from it in her 1984 music video for Borderline.^[1]
• While studying painting at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Haring worked as a busboy at the nightclub Danceteria.^[1]
• In 1980 Haring made fake headlines from cut-up words, such as Reagan Slain by Hero Cop, and attached hundreds of them to lampposts around Manhattan.^[1]
• Keith Haring was alive at the same time as Erwin Schrödinger — their lives overlapped for 3 years (1958–1961).^[1][2][3][4]
• Keith Haring shares a birthday with Audrey Hepburn: both were born on May 4.^[1][2][5][6]

Keith Allen Haring was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his work includes sexual allusions that turned into social activism by using the images to advocate for safe sex and AIDS awareness. In addition to solo gallery exhibitions, he participated in renowned national and international group shows such as documenta in Kassel, the Whitney Biennial in New York, the São Paulo Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. The Whitney Museum held a retrospective of his art in 1997.^[1]

Contemporaries

Bob Hope

32 yr overlap

Dorothy Hodgkin

32 yr overlap

Mother Teresa

32 yr overlap

Akira Kurosawa

32 yr overlap

Jacques Cousteau

32 yr overlap

Rosa Parks

32 yr overlap

Ingmar Bergman

32 yr overlap

Frank Sinatra

32 yr overlap

Roald Dahl

32 yr overlap

Ella Fitzgerald

32 yr overlap

Nelson Mandela

32 yr overlap

Edmund Hillary

32 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Keith Haring

When was Keith Haring born?

Keith Haring was born on May 4, 1958, and died on February 16, 1990.

How old was Keith Haring at death?

Keith Haring was born on May 4, 1958, and died on February 16, 1990, at age 31.

What was Keith Haring known for?

Keith Haring was known for: Pop art and graffiti-inspired works. Keith Allen Haring was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his work includes sexual allusions that turned into social activism by using the images to advocate for safe sex and AIDS awareness. In addition to solo gallery exhibitions, he participated in renowned national and international group shows such as documenta in Kassel, the Whitney Biennial in New York, the São Paulo Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. The Whitney Museum held a retrospective of his art in 1997.

Who was alive at the same time as Keith Haring?

Keith Haring's closest contemporary was Bob Hope. Their lives overlapped for 32 years.