Haring, Keith (hâr`ĭng), 1958–90, American artist, b. Kutztown, Pa. He moved to New York City in 1975 and studied at the School of Visual Arts (1978–79). Fascinated with the 1970s graffiti artists, Haring soon joined them in the subways, and his chalked drawings on station advertising boards became underground icons—cheerful, boldly outlined, cartoonlike figures surrounded by kinetic lines suggesting movement or, in the case of his trademark "radiant baby," a kind of holy light. During the 1980s his brand of second-generation pop art pop art, a movement that first emerged in Great Britain at the end of the 1950s as a reaction against the seriousness of abstract expressionism . British and American pop artists employed a common imagery found in comic strips, soup cans, and Coke bottles to express
..... Click the link for more information. , with its exuberantly charming images, reached a broad public as fine art in paintings and prints and commercially on T-shirts, watches, and other products, many of which were sold at his New York Pop Shop. He also created murals, stage sets, and sculpture. When Haring discovered (1988) that he had AIDS AIDS or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, fatal disease caused by a rapidly mutating retrovirus that attacks the immune system and leaves the victim vulnerable to infections, malignancies, and neurological disorders.
..... Click the link for more information. he turned much of his artistic attention to educational works about the dangers of the disease.

Bibliography

See biography by J. Gruen (1991); study by E. Sussman et al. (1997).

Haring, Keith

(born May 4, 1958, Reading, Pa., U.S.—died Feb. 16, 1990, New York, N.Y.) U.S. painter and draftsman. He studied at New York City's School of Visual Arts and developed a unique style inspired by graffiti, cartoons, and comic strips, which he displayed in works drawn clandestinely at night on subway station walls around the city. He also created paintings, drawings, and prints in a graffiti style, filling the works from edge to edge using signs, abstract symbols, and human and animal figures writhing in a spaceless, airless design. In the 1980s he executed murals in New York and exhibited internationally, achieving great commercial success.