This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, Keith Haring became known for graffiti and cartoon art and became a leading figure in the New York contemporary art world of the second half of the 20th century.
He was raised in Kutztown and then after high school, moved to Pittsburgh and began to study commercial art. In 1978, he moved to New York City and studied at the School of Visual Arts where he and artist Kenny Scharf became companions.
Haring began to experiment with graffiti, painting first on subway walls. He became known for his complex, pandemonic, jigsaw -puzzle like paintings, intended to be iconography of American life. Usually he would begin by making the border around the work and then would go inside the space. He said "the whole painting is the cartoon of a cartoon."
In 1982, he had his first exhibition, which was held at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York. Whitney Museum curators organized a major retrospective of his work in 1997. He died of AIDS in 1990.
His work is subject of numerous magazine articles including by:
Natalie E. Phillips."The Radiant (Christ) Child:Keith Haring and the Jesus Movement." American Art Fall 2007
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From Milestones
Today is the 43rd anniversary of Keith Haring's birth
On a day like today 43 years ago the American artist Keith Haring was born in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. He had his first solo show of abstract drawings at the Pittsburgh center for the arts. In 1978 he moved to New York City and studied at the school of visual arts. He used to videotape the painting process. He participated in the Times Square show, an important exhibition of new art held in New York City. In 1981 he made his first chalk drawings on black paper pasted over expired advertisements in New York City's subway stations.
He also curated exhibitions of drawings and graffiti art and participated in the New York/New Wave show. He had his first solo gallery exhibition at Tony Shafrazi gallery, New York City. He painted murals in New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Düsseldorf, Paris, Antwerp, Monaco, Chicago and Rio de Janeiro. He died of aids on February 16, 1990.
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Biography from Fineartgasm.com:
| | 1958-1990 - During a brief but intense career that spanned the 1980s, Haring's work was featured in over 100 solo and group exhibitions. In 1986 alone, he was the subject of more than 40 newspaper and magazine articles. He was highly sought after to participate in special projects and collaborated with artists and performers such as Madonna, Grace Jones, Bill T. Jones, William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Jenny Holzer and Andy Warhol. By expressing universal concepts of birth, death, love, sex and war, using a primacy of line and directness of message, Haring was able to attract a wide audience and assure the accessibility and staying power of his imagery, which has become a universally recognized visual language of the 20th century. Keith Haring died of AIDS related complications at the age of 31 on February 16, 1990. A memorial service was held on May 4, 1990 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, with over 1,000 people in attendance. |
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Keith Haring is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Modernism
Sculptors
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