Keith Haring Folk Art
Keith Haring began experimenting with his bold, graphic lines and cartoon-inspired figures on the walls of New York City subway stations in the early 1980s. He called them his “laboratory,” places to develop a radical new aesthetic based on an ideology of creating truly democratic public art.
Haring’s paintings, prints and murals address the universal themes of death, love and sex, as well as contemporary issues he experienced personally, like the crack-cocaine and AIDS epidemics. They derive much of their impact from the powerful contrast between these serious subjects and the joyful, vibrant pictographic language he uses to express them, full of dancing figures, babies, barking dogs, hearts and rhythmic lines, as well as references to pop culture.
To make his art even more accessible, in 1986, Haring opened the Pop Shop in Soho. In a foreshadowing of today’s intermingling of art and fashion, the shop sold merchandise and novelty items featuring imagery by Haring and contemporaries like Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat. While his works sometimes included text, for the most part, he chose to communicate through drawing.
“Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times,” Haring once declared. “It lives through magic.”
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1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Keith Haring Folk Art
Paper
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Keith Haring Folk Art
Enamel
1940s German Mid-Century Modern Vintage Keith Haring Folk Art
Other
20th Century American Keith Haring Folk Art
Canvas
Early 20th Century Art Deco Keith Haring Folk Art
Other
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Keith Haring Folk Art
Canvas, Paint
Mid-19th Century American Folk Art Antique Keith Haring Folk Art
Glass, Softwood, Paint
1870s American American Empire Antique Keith Haring Folk Art
Gold Leaf
Early 20th Century Art Deco Keith Haring Folk Art
Other
Late 20th Century Expressionist Keith Haring Folk Art
Other
1990s Ghanaian Keith Haring Folk Art
Paint, Paper
Late 20th Century Keith Haring Folk Art
Other
Early 20th Century Art Deco Keith Haring Folk Art
Other
1990s American Keith Haring Folk Art
Wood
1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Keith Haring Folk Art
Paper