Keith Haring

Keith Haring, American artist and writer, is one of the most important exponents of graffiti art during eighties art market boom. His works represent the New York street culture of that decade. From an early age he showed interest in drawing encouraged by his father, an illustrator of comics and cartoons. The characters of Walt Disney, of Dr. Seuss and other protagonists of the cartoons exerted on him such a clear and lasting influence that he created the essence of his art in the stylized work. At the end of high school, he enrolled at the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh and later at the commercial art school. He soon abandoned his studies and arrived in San Francisco, where he had the opportunity to meet many artists. Return to Pittsburgh and enroll at the University. To keep his studies he finds an occupation in a place that exhibits objects of art, and here, he manages to set up his first personal exhibition. In New York he entered the School of Visual Art, and in 1978 he exhibited his creations at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. His artistic inclination brings him closer to the works of Jean Dubuffet, Stuart Davis, Jackson Pollock, Paul Klee and Mark Tobey. He begins to make graffiti, especially in metro stations and his Pop-art becomes very popular and popular. In 1980 he participated together with Andy Warhol, and other important artists, in the artistic exhibition "Terrae Motus", in favor of the earthquake victims of Irpinia. He occupies a building in Times Square making the "Times Square Show" exhibition. He continued his activity making many exhibitions, until Tony Shafrazi Gallery became his reference gallery. In 1981 he took part in the first collective of the Nosei gallery, ‘Public Address’, along with the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer. In 1983 he exhibited in Sao Paulo, London and Tokyo. In 1984 he went to Bologna to exhibit at the "Arte di Frontiera" exhibition. In 1985 in Milan he painted a wall in Elio Fiorucci's shop, which in an interview with the monthly Stilearte, recounts: «I invited Haring to Milan, bewitched by his ability to elevate the extemporaneousness to the highest steps of art. He gave body to a non-stop happening, working for a day and a night. His signs "invaded" everything, the walls but also the furniture in the shop ... It was an unforgettable event. People came in to see Keith paint, he stopped to drink and chat. Twenty-four hours of continuous flow; and then the newspapers, the televisions ... Later, the murals were detached and sold at auction by the Parisian gallery Binoche. " In 1986 he opened his first Pop Shop in New York, where he sold gadgets depicting his works and where he could be seen at work. The same year he painted children holding hands on the Berlin Wall. In the Harlem ghetto he writes on a large wall of East Harlem Drive, the words "Crack is Wack" - "crack is crap". He often collaborates with Angel Ortiz, graffiti artist of the East Side of New York City. In 1987 he decorated a part of the Paris Necker Hospital. Opens a Pop Shop in Tokyo. In 1988, he stated in an interview that he was suffering from the HIV virus. For this reason he founded the Keith Haring Foundation, which still offers support to child protection organizations and the fight against AIDS. In 1989 near the church of Sant'Antonio abate of Pisa, he performed his last public work, a large mural entitled "Tuttomondo" and dedicated to universal peace. In 1990 Haring died of AIDS at the age of 31. Despite his premature death, Haring's world of images became in the twentieth century, a universally recognized visual language, deserving, among the countless exhibitions, to be celebrated also at the Milan Triennale in January 2006.