Influential American artist, Keith Haring, in front of some of his work.
Keith Haring was born in 1958 and rose to prominence in New York in the 1980s. Though he died from AIDS-related complications when he was just 31, during his brief career, Haring achieved significant success with his instantly-recognisable stylised figures and symbols, and he is now widely-regarded as one of the most important artists of the late 20th century.
Haring’s legacy has only continued to grow since his death in 1990, as have the prices paid for his work at auction. His prints, for instance, account for 60% of his work sold at auction, where they usually reach up to £5,000, with a significant proportion being sold for up to £50,000.
Much of Keith Haring’s work explores political and social issues, reflecting the artist’s own beliefs and convictions. Therefore, it is useful to know some things about the artist when considering his art; below is a list of five things you might not have known about Keith Haring.
Free Specialist Print Valuations
Please use the form below to submit images of your print and receive a free, no-obligation valuation from a specialist auctioneer. We will also actively seek the highest offer from our network of private collectors to help you sell your print.
"*" indicates required fields
He Loved Cartoons
According to Keith Haring, his father “made cartoons” and encouraged his son’s interest in animation and art. As a child, Haring drew his own cartoons to create “characters and stories” for himself, though at the time, he believed “there was a separation between cartooning and being an ‘artist’.”
Haring’s background in cartoons proved to be very influential in his later career; not only do the artist’s stylised figures owe much to animation, but his most sought-after prints (from the Andy Mouse series) are actually an amalgamation of Andy Warhol and Mickey Mouse, perhaps the world’s most famous cartoon.
His Most Expensive Prints Sold For Over £786,000
Andy Mouse is undoubtedly Keith Haring’s most popular series of prints, accounting for nine of the artist’s 16 most expensive prints sold at auction. Even individual images from the series sell extremely well, and one complete set of four was sold by Christie’s in September 2023 for £786,652, setting a new record for the artist.
Part of the images’ appeal is their playful irreverence and imaginative approach. Combining Disney’s recognisable Mickey Mouse outline with Pop Art icon Andy Warhol’s signature look, Haring was both making a comment on American culture and simultaneously honouring one of his own heroes; in his own words, “Andy [Warhol] has been a big influence as an example of both what to be and what not to be. I have learned a lot of things from Andy.”
Andy Mouse sold by Christie’s in 2023
He Started Out Graffitiing New York’s Subways
Keith Haring was born in Pennsylvania, but he moved to New York City in 1978 to study art.
It was here that he first started to make a name for himself when he began creating chalk drawings on the empty black advertisement panels in the city’s subway system. Haring believed that “because [the drawings] were so fragile, people left them alone and respected them… It gave them this other power.”
This power meant Haring soon started to establish a reputation, and commuters became used to seeing him working; as the artist said, “People were completely enthralled.” He worked quickly and energetically, sometimes creating as many as forty drawings in one day, and the experience helped hone the style he would later become famous for.
But Haring wasn’t only creating art in the subways; The Blueprint Drawings, for instance, is a series of prints from 1990 which was based on drawings the artist made between December 1980 and January 1981, around the time he first started graffitiing the subways. In his own words, the images from the series “form a perfect time capsule of my beginning in New York City”.
He Opened His Own Shop
Haring’s rise to fame was fast and spectacular. This brought new opportunities and meant the artist could finally make a living from his art, but it also created problems; as his work became more sought-after, it also became more valuable. As Haring said, “By 1984, the subway [drawings] started to backfire, because everyone was stealing the pieces.”
Alongside theft, Haring faced another issue: by now, his work was fetching such high prices that it had become inaccessible to most people, which went against the artist’s own beliefs about the nature of art. In response to these pressures, Haring opened the Pop Shop in 1986 as a kind of extension of his artistic practice. He painted murals throughout the interior, and the shop sold a wide range of products bearing his most popular images and motifs (many of which are brought together in the Retrospect prints of 1989), thus achieving Haring’s aim of making art “for people.”
Billboard for Keith Haring’s Pop Shop in NYC
He Was An Activist
Much of Keith Haring’s artwork (including Growing and The Blueprint Drawings) is intrinsically linked to the social and political causes the artist was involved with, especially the work created in the last few years of his life. Moreover, between 1982 and 1989, Haring created over 50 public artworks across the world, many of which were for charities, hospitals, and orphanages.
After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, Haring spoke openly about his illness, and he used his artistic talent to raise awareness about it. He also established the Keith Haring Foundation in 1989, with the aim that it would continue to support charitable causes after his death.
Although his life was short, Haring’s art has endured long after his death, and it continues to be relevant today, just as he’d hoped. As the artist said, “All of the things that you make are a kind of quest for immortality… They don’t depend on breathing, so they’ll last longer than any of us will. Which is sort of an interesting idea, that it’s sort of extending your life to some degree.”
