Totem, 1988
Painted plywood
183 x 61 x 10 cm
Edition of 35

artist profile

Keith Haring

education

Ivy School of Art, Pittsburgh, USA, 1978
School of Visual Arts, New York, USA, 1979

about the artist

1958–1990

Born: Reading, USA
Died: New York, USA

Singular in its exuberance, optimism, and energy, as well as in its cartoon, graphic design, and graffiti aesthetic, Keith Haring’s art is a supernova of color that coexists in startling permutations and line, tracing his passionate stream of consciousness. The artist drew quickly and accurately, connecting pictograph to pattern, pattern to pictograph, in an all-over composition that sought to communicate to and engage with the masses. Haring worked relentlessly to produce a public art that integrated political commentary and social activism with statements on the institution of art and culture as well as on sexuality. His highly readable, accessible imagery became an effective means to express, convey, and even influence ideas, opinions, and information. Undeniably Pop, Haring’s art was swiftly grouped with that of his contemporaries, such as Andy Warhol, Kenny Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and others. The artist was also credited with propelling the movement beyond the American art hub and into the rest of the world. Numerous monographs have been dedicated to his work, always highlighting the contribution he made in demolishing the conventional barricade that distinguished high from low art. An astonishing number of solo shows of his work have been held for the artist all over the world in galleries and museums, and posthumous retrospectives have also taken place in Europe, Australia, Asia, and North and South America. 

Website: http://www.haring.com/

 

  • Selected exhibition history
  • Permanent collections
  • Projects
  • Editions
  • Publications
  • Recent news

2012SOLO Keith Haring: 1978-1982, The Brooklyn Museum, USA

GROUP This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980's, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA

2011GROUP Art in the Streets, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA

GROUP Looking at Music 3.0, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

SOLO Keith Haring 1978-1982, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA

2010GROUP Hide Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, USA

GROUP The Global Africa Project, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA

SOLO Keith Haring: Pop Art Superstar, Sangrok Gallery at Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea; Institut d’Art Contemporain in Villeurbanne, Villeurbanne, France

SOLO Keith Haring, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria

SOLO The Keith Haring Show, SOMA Museum of Arts, Seoul, South Korea

2009GROUP Pop Life: Art in a Material World, Tate Modern, London, UK; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany

SOLO Keith Haring: Print Retrospective 1982 – 1990, Collins C. Diboll Art Gallery of Loyola University, New Orleans, USA

SOLO The Keith Haring Show, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mons, Belgium

2008GROUP Artists Intervene – Politically Committed Poster Art from Picasso to the Present Day, Kathe Kollwitz Museum, Cologne, Germany

SOLO Keith Haring Retrospective, Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France; Ludwigmuseum, Budapest, Hungary

2007GROUP ART IN AMERICA: 300 Years of Innovation, National Art Museum, Beijing, China; Museum of Contemporary Art, Shangai, China; Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

GROUP Personal Jesus...: The Religious Art of Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, USA

GROUP The Outdoor Gallery: 40 Years of Public Art in New York Parks, Arsenal Gallery, Arsenal at Central Park, New York, USA

2006SOLO Keith Haring: POP Haring - Symbols and Icons Editions on paper from the Estate of Keith Haring, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore

SOLO Keith Haring - Early Drawings, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK

2005GROUP Picturing America: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Twenty First Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan; Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Japan

GROUP Surfing the Century: Twentieth-Century Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, USA

2004GROUP Beauty and the Beast: The Magic of the Instinctual in Art, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rovereto, Italy

GROUP Crimes and Misdemeanors: Politics in U.S. Art of the 1980's, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA

GROUP Co-Conspirators: Artist and Collector, Orlando Museum of Art, USA

SOLO Keith Haring: New Wave Aztec, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

SOLO The Characters of Keith Haring, Children's Museum of the Arts, New York, USA

2003GROUP From Picasso to Keith Haring, National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba

GROUP Parthenogenesis, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia

SOLO Keith Haring: Short Message. Posters 1982-1990, Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany

SOLO Keith Haring, Centro Cutural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil

2002GROUP PopJock: Warhol-Muraka, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, USA

2001GROUP One Planet Under A Groove: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA

GROUP Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA

SOLO Keith Haring: Heaven and Hell, Museum fur Neue Kunst/ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

GROUP Mythic Proportions: Painting in the 1980s, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA

Albertina Collection, Vienna, Austria

Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, USA

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

Art Institute of Chicago, USA

Bass Museum of Art, Miami, USA

Benesse House, Naoshima, Japan

Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, USA

Broad Family Foundation, Los Angeles, USA

Bruce Museum, Greenwich, USA

CAPC Musée de l'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA

Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, USA

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, New York, USA

Citygardens, St. Louis, USA

Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, USA

Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA

Église St Eustache, Paris, France

Emily Fisher Landau Foundation, New York, USA

Fondation Edelman, Lausanne, Switzerland

François Pinault Foundation, Venice, Italy

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, USA

Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands

Haggerty Museum, Marquette University, Milwaukee, USA

HausBill, Zumikon, Switzerland

Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

The John and Mildred Putnam Sculpture Collection: Case Western University, Cleveland, USA

Kunsthalle Weishaupt, Ulm, Germany

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA

Ludwig Collection, Budapest, Hungary

Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany

Marx Collection, Berlin, Germany

Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Nice, France

Musée de l'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

Museum of Art, Kochi, Japan

Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia

Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Geneva, Switzerland

Nakamura Keith Haring Collection, Kobuchizawa, Japan

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada

Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz, Austria

Neues Museum Weimar, Germany

Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, USA

Palais Razumovsky Collection, Vienna, Austria

Rooseum, Malmo, Sweden

Rubell Family Collection, Miami, U.S.A

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, USA

University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, USA

Verbeke Foundation, Stekene, Belgium

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA

ZKM/Museum fur Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, Germany