1. Keith Haring 1978-1982 Polaroid self-portraits with glasses painted by Kenny Sharf, 1980-81 PowerPoint by Gretchen Ferber
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11. How does this work relate to Haring’s early experiments in his journals? What happens to the figures when surrounded by the geometrics shapes? Untitled, 1980
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Editor's Notes
Keith Haring was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1958. As a child, he was fascinated by cartoons and drew them constantly. In 1978 when he enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in New York, he left his cartoon characters behind as he began to explore what he described as the most exciting city in the world. Needed: Row of pictures of Harring.
Keith Haring 1978-1982 spans the time when Haring developed his artistic style from abstracted forms into figurative styles.
Haring kept journals where he documented his important artistic discoveries.
IMAGE: Red Gouche paintings.
In his journals, Keith played with the layout of the forms and how they could be combined. Negative and positive space. IMAGE: journal entry.
Haring’s work began to change. H e moved away from complex combinations of abstracted forms to combinations of words, whether spelled out in works on paper or spelled out and spoken in the video works. As a result, meaning is established in the intervals—the in-between spaces that both separate and link words.
Haring’s artistic experimentation continued as he transitioned from abstract shapes and words into a returned focus on figures and objects. In 1980, he introduced figures in his drawings that he used for the rest of his life that are easily recognizable today.
His iconic figures include the standing figure, the pyramid, the dog, the flying saucer, the radio, the nuclear reactor, the bird, the dolphin, and radiating lines to indicate movement or the flows of energy. These figures echo his early interest in cartoons.
By 1981, the artist had merged two of his working styles. He combined his allover geometric abstractions with images of figures and objects. He accomplished this by filling only part of a composition with dense strokes which left the key figurative elements easily recognizable. These linear brushstrokes symbolize movement in a manner used by cartoonists.
Beginning in 1978, Haring ventured into New York’s public spaces to create art that was for everyone. He understood for his work to have a significant impact it needed to be experienced by diverse audiences. He furthered his commitment to creating a truly public art form by creating art in the streets and by giving his images away for free in the form of buttons, Xeroxed posters and flyers.
Haring’s activity in public spaces reached its climax when he began drawing his signature figures in chalk on pieces of black paper. This act of drawing in public without a license made his works an illegal form of communication. Because of the perceived vandalism Haring was arrested several times.
Haring’s Legacy Haring’s goal of creating art for everyone has inspired the contemporary practice of street art. Shepard Fairey’s Obey Giant closely follows the format of Haring’s radiant child as a viral image that has become seen as the artist’s signature. Haring’s aesthetic world lives on in the form of fashion, product designs and public murals that he created in various countries.
![[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],New Drawings by Keith Haring: Des Refus és , 1981](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)