Art
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#art history
#Keith Haring
#Pop art
#pop-ups
#public art
#Simon Arizpe

All images © Keith Haring Foundation

One of the most iconic figures of the 1980s Pop Art movement, Keith Haring (previously) is best known for his playful pictograms like “Radiant Baby” or “Barking Dog,” motifs that frequently appeared in compositions amid boldly outlined dancing figures, flying saucers, gender symbols, angels, crosses, and pyramids. His energetic surfaces depict colorful, playful scenes, incorporating a deceptive simplicity and vibrancy to bolster important and challenging themes of community, health, religion, politics, and sexuality.

Haring always loved to draw. As a child in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, he doodled and learned basic cartooning skills by observing movers and shakers of midcentury popular culture like Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney. In 1978, after high school and two semesters in a commercial art program, Haring wasn’t satisfied with pursuing a career as a graphic artist. So, he moved to New York City, enrolled at the School of Visual Arts, and landed at the epicenter of an alternative art and graffiti scene burgeoning in the city’s subways, clubs, and streets.

Befriending and often collaborating with art historical behemoths like Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf, Haring experimented with a range of mediums, from performance and video to installation and collage. And while he was invigorated by the New York art community and the opportunity to experiment, he also looked to the past for guidance, studying the work of Jean Dubuffet and Pierre Alechinsky, among others. Drawing always remained a central tenet of his practice, often emerging on subway advertising panels or, above ground, on walls, billboards, and even an amusement park.

Keith Haring Pop Up Book, newly published by Poposition Press and engineered by Simon Arizpe (previously), recreates six of Haring’s iconic works, including Sculptures, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Pop Shop Grid, Dog, Silence=Death, and Houston Street Mural. 

Learn more about the artist’s life and work on the Keith Haring Foundation’s website, and grab your own copy of the book from the Colossal Shop.

#art history
#Keith Haring
#Pop art
#pop-ups
#public art
#Simon Arizpe

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