My life is my art, it’s intertwined… When AIDS became a reality in terms of my life, it started becoming a subject in my paintings. The more it affected my life the more it affected my work.”- Haring Dec. 1st, 1989 Los Angeles Times. 

  
  Keith Haring was born May 4, 1958, in Pennsylvania and raised in Kutztown. He developed a love for drawing at a young age would later lead him to become a notable artist from New York’s vibrant graffiti culture in the 1980s. After graduating from high school in 1976 he enrolled at the School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh and scored one exhibition in Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts Center.

    However, his New York years are where he truly shined, joining a thriving alternative art community developing outside traditional galleries and museum works: subways, clubs and former dance halls. He became friends with people like Kenny Scharf, the luminary Jean-Michael Basquiat along other struggling musicians and performance artists.

    Inspired and mentored by Andy Warhol, he was drawn to the public and participatory nature of art and was determined to devote his career to creating truly public art. He began to experiment with performance, video, installation, and collage but still maintained a strong commitment to drawing. Finally, he orchestrated a highly effective method to communicate with a larger audience. The subways had an advertising panel, mostly unused with black matte paper. Haring used white chalk to bring these blank panels to life. He produced hundreds with rapid rhythm, from 1980-1985 creating as many as “forty subway drawings in one day.” 

It soon gained him international recognition and he began to reign in multiple solo and group exhibitions from 1980 to 1980. His first exhibit was in New York, held at the West Beth Painters Space 1981. However, his most popular exhibit was his Soho, Tony Shafrazi Gallery installations. He accomplished this while still completing public projects.

   His work often carried social messages; many of his public artworks featured and were created for charities, hospitals, children’s daycares and orphanages. His 1986 “Crack is Wack” anti-drug activism piece is located East 128th street and 2nd Avenue in East Harlem. It still serves as a warning against crack cocaine use, which was rampant in the late 1980s. Originally, Haring was not given legal permission to create the piece, which is actually painted on a wall of an abandoned handball court. Upon completion, Haring was arrested for vandalism and faced potential jail time as well as the usual heavy fines.  However, media sources such as the Washington Post and The New York Post along with city locals themselves verbalized their support for the piece.

   Haring was openly gay and used his art not only to “fully incorporate his homosexuality as one of the indissoluble facets of his art” but also advocate for safe sex. Haring was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS during the 80s AIDS epidemic.
  

    He was outspoken about the avoidance of social issues such as aids through a piece called “Rebel with Many Causes.” It intertwines with the motif of “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” which often signifies turning a blind eye to undesirable information, struggles, or corruption. “Haring died Feb. !6th, 1990 due to AIDS complications.