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Keith Haring Biography
• He was inspired to
draw by his Dad,
Walt Disney cartoons,
and “Peanuts” cartoons by
Charles Shultz.
• Born May 4, 1958 in Pennsylvania.
• He moved to New York City in 1978.
• Haring found inspiration in graffiti art.
• He began his “subway” drawings in 1980.
• The people of New York City who rode the subways were puzzled by the appearance of these strange drawings.
• “Every two weeks or so I’d add new elements to the drawings,” said Keith, “Often I’d do thirty or forty drawings in one day.”
• At first, no one knew who was doing the subway drawings because Haring did not sign his name to his artworks.
• Instead he would often use a picture or symbol as a signature.
signature
• As people began to recognize Haring and his artwork, he was catapulted into fame very quickly.
• The simple style and accessibility of his artwork
meant it
appealed to a
wide variety
of people.
• Soon his artwork was immediately recognizable to thousands of people around the
world.
• He became an
in-demand artist
and was asked to
create artworks
all over the world.
• During the time Haring was enjoying his rise to fame in the art world, he lost a number of friends to AIDS, a new and little known disease at the time.
• He became involved in activism campaigns to raise awareness of this fatal disease through his art.
• Toward the end of 1988, he noticed a purple spot on his leg, a sign of an AIDS related cancer called Kaposi’s sarcoma.
• His doctors confirmed that he too, like many of his friends, had AIDS.
• Keith Haring died on February 16, 1990 of AIDS related complications.
• He was 31 years old.
• Although he died more than 25 years ago, Keith Haring’s memory is still very much alive today.
• His work continues to be exhibited in dozens of countries and many are owned by museums around the world.
• Recently, in March 2011, some of his artwork was featured on the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle.
• The puzzle contains 32,256 pieces and measures 17 feet by 6 inches.
• It weighs 42 pounds, costs $300, and takes about 400 hours to do.