Featured Artist for March - April 2000

Featured GiveAway by Keith Haring Keith Haring Swatch Watch "Egyptian" Valued at$150

Ray Ward Seal Beach, CA

Featured Artist Keith Haring

Keith Haring was known as an exceptionally gifted, prolific workaholic who created thousands of images and donated murals to children's hospitals while promoting AIDS awareness. The artist died from the epidemic a decade ago in 1990 at age 31. Despite his shortened lifespan, he made a lasting impression to the point that the vast majority of people are familiar with his work. Due in part to his mass appeal and imperative role in shaping the culture of his generation, the Whitney Museum in New York held its debut Haring retrospective in 1997.

Born 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania and raised in rural Kutztown, Pennsylvania, Haring grew up during the sixties and kept in heart the liberal spirit of those times. His mission, which he accomplished thoroughly, was to touch audiences far and wide with his art. In order to reach that goal, Haring left Pennsylvania in 1977 to study at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he began his career as a street artist doing chalk drawings on subway walls. Boldly he portrayed barking dogs, radiating babies and dancing figures, casting his own set of characters that somehow retained the impact of cartoon images from childhood.

Keith was an eldest son and a rebel that ran away from home on several occasions during adolescence. He was clearly introspective, always searching for something. Summers would find him running to the shore to search further within. Drawing was Keith's pastime during childhood, spurred by his pensive drive. His father sketched for him cartoon characters that he filled in with minuscule shapes instead of characters. Keith also drew profiles of characters in the form of animals and people. His drawing capacity progressed in high school with the strong sense of line that stuck with him for the rest of his life.

Keith was arrested repeatedly in the eighties for assorted criminal mischief, yet became a very popular artist at the same time. His distinct murals have covered walls and attracted attention across the United States, Europe, and Australia. Building on his impulse to paint on everything from refrigerator doors to NYPD street barriers, Haring used large vinyl tarpaulins, advertising space and of course New York subways to express his ideas.

International Youth Year, 1988 Lithograph 17" x 14 x 2"

Between 1982 and 1989, Haring produced more than 50 public artworks in dozens of cities around the world. His "Crack is Wack" wall, painted in 1986 without the city's permission, is now a landmark along New York's FDR Drive. Haring has been involved in charity work from the start of his career. Proceeds have been donated to nuclear disarmament, literacy and AIDS education, even before he was diagnosed with HIV. He painted dozens of murals for charities, hospitals, children's care centers, and orphanages. Just three years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, he painted a generous portion of its west side. At the Statue of Liberty centennial in 1986, he collaborated with 900 children to complete a canvas mural for the event. The artist held drawing workshops at schools and museums in New York, Amsterdam, London, Tokyo, and Bordeaux, while working for many literacy and other public service campaigns.

In the mid-eighties, Haring's images became so collectible that, in order to cater to the masses, his Pop Shop was opened in downtown Manhattan in 1986 to sell commercial products. The store gave the general public affordable access of his work on shirts, buttons, bags, and posters, completing the artist's passage from street to alternative to mainstream.

A Piece of Art, 1989 Bone China

Keith Haring's work belongs to esteemed permanent collections such as the Musee de L'Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among many others. In essence, Haring's remarkable triumph as an artist was the fact that he created an "everyman" who appeals to practically everyone.

In 1988, Haring was diagnosed with AIDS and thereafter focused on educating the public about the deadly virus. He enlisted his imagery during the last years of his life to speak about his own illness and generate AIDS awareness. The Keith Haring Foundation was independently established by the artist a year before in order to provide funding and imagery to AIDS groups and children's organizations. It also spread his message through exhibitions, publications, and licensing of the artist's images. His philanthropy continues to this day through the foundation. Haring's legacy remains for the children whose innocence he so admired.


PARTIAL UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS:

Through April 25, 2000: Meier Gardens, Grand Rapids, Michigan (outdoor sculptures)
Through March 2000: Palazzo Lanfranchi, Pisa, Italy
April 1 - May 21, 2000: Sapporo City Museum of Modern Art, Hokkaido, Japan
April - June 2000: Women's Playhouse Trust, London, England
April 29 - August 20, 2000: Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki, Finland
May 2000: School of Visual Arts, New York
May 3 - July 20, 2000: Nittsu City Museum, Niigata, Japan
October - November 2000: Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany
December 2000 - January 2001: Chiostro del Bramante, Rome, Italy

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ARTIST STATEMENT

The only way art lives is through the experience of the observer. The reality of art begins in the eyes of the beholder, through imagination, inventation and confrontation. To find hope and beauty in the midst of oppression and struggle is certainly a challenge but also carries the greatest rewards. ~ Keith Haring, 1983, New York City