Keith Haring in Pop Art
- Keith Haring was a New-York based graffiti and Pop Art artist. 🇺🇸 (If you want to learn a little more about Pop Art, you can read more HERE).
- Keith Haring was originally born on the 4th of May, 1958, in Pennsylvania.
- Like many of you, Keith Haring started to love drawing from a very young age and was taught how to draw by his dad!
- He especially loved cartoons and took inspiration from Walt Disney and Dr.Seuss. 🎨
Joseph Szkodzinski, Keith Haring Drawing Series, 1982
© Joseph Szkodzinski 2018
www.thefoundimage.com
What is His Work Like?
Like most Pop Art artists, Keith Haring absolutely loved colour. He always used bright and bold colours in his work. 🌈
Far from being realistic, Keith loved to paint in block colours and avoided including shadows, highlights, or depth in his work. 🎨
Heavily inspired by comics, Keith Haring’s work was all about movement and fun – think action scenes, flying humans and lots of dancing! 💃🕺
He often liked to use odd and random objects within his work such as dogs, UFOs, and stickmen!
©Keith Haring
Growing 2, 1998
What Made Keith Haring so Special?
When Keith Haring first moved to New York when he was 20 years old, he started out creating art by drawing with chalk on empty subway posters.
Keith really liked all the graffiti work in New York and was inspired by graffiti artist’s bold, colourful, and cartoonish style.
Graffiti is something Keith Haring continued to do throughout his life.
Even after he got exhibitions in famous art galleries, he still enjoyed creating outdoor pieces and he wanted everyone to be able to see what he had made!
Have you ever created a chalk drawing on the pavement or hung a drawing in your window so people could see?
Keith Haring leaves his mark in 1982
LAURA LEVINE/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
Buying art can sometimes be very expensive. To make sure everyone could buy some of his art, Keith Haring opened up a pop-up shop (like a gift shop!) which sold affordable prints and pieces of his artwork.
Keith Haring was also a very giving person. Shortly before his death in 1990, he set up the Keith Haring Foundation – an organisation that preserved his artwork and also helped to support AIDs charities (an illness he sadly died from), educational organisations, as well as projects that help children.
Keith Haring was inspired by children and often created murals and artworks at children’s hospitals to bring joy to sick children.
He also loved to create art with children, Keith often invited school children along to help him paint his massive murals. He even once created a 90ft long painting of the statue of liberty with around 1,000 children!
Your Go!
Keith Haring was an artist all about making art as exciting as possible and sharing it with as many people as possible.
To make art in the true Keith Haring fashion, you should get together with some friends and create as much colourful, bright, and fun art as possible – you should then share it with as people as you can!
We’d love to see any Keith Haring pieces of yours and you can send them to us at admin@art-k.co.uk