50 Fun Facts About Keith Haring

Keith Haring made his name drawing on empty black ad panels in the New York subway with what?

White chalk on the matte paper covering unused panels gave him a free public canvas, and Keith Haring sometimes made as many as forty drawings in a day.

Keith Haring was arrested in 1986 after painting which mural on a Harlem handball court?

Crack Is Wack went up without permission, but the press and locals backed it and Keith Haring paid only a $100 fine. The Parks Department later invited him back to repaint it.

In 1986 Keith Haring painted a chain of red and black figures on yellow along which structure?

The Berlin Wall mural borrowed the colours of the German flag as a wish for unity between East and West. The barrier itself fell three years later.

Keith Haring fused Mickey Mouse with which Pop artist, his friend and mentor, in 1980s prints?

Andy Warhol became a mouse-eared character in the prints, and in one of them Keith Haring placed him on a dollar bill. Both men signed every sheet.

Which pop star made the last US concert of her 1990 world tour a benefit in memory of Keith Haring?

Madonna gave more than $300,000 from the show to AIDS research. She and Keith Haring had been friends since the early 1980s.

What did Keith Haring call the SoHo store he opened in 1986 to sell T-shirts and posters of his art?

Pop Shop was his answer to soaring prices and street fakes, and he painted its walls, floor and ceiling himself. It stayed open until 2005.

Which annual New York event featured a giant Keith Haring figure in 2008, his 50th birthday year?

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade flew the figure as a balloon, something Keith Haring had always dreamed of making. It bumped into NBC's booth and briefly knocked the broadcast off air.

Keith Haring painted a mural on the White House lawn in 1988 during which annual children's event?

The Easter Egg Roll mural did not stay at the White House: Keith Haring donated it to Children's National Hospital in Washington.

Which Keith Haring symbol, his most recognized, did he use as a tag to sign subway drawings?

Radiant Baby, a crawling infant giving off rays of light, alludes to the Christ Child. It later appeared on the AIDS Memorial Quilt panel sewn in his memory.

Before fame, Keith Haring hitchhiked across America selling T-shirts he made of which rock band?

Grateful Dead shirts and anti-Nixon designs paid his way across the country, years before he opened a store to sell T-shirts of his own art.

Keith Haring was born in Reading and raised in nearby Kutztown, both in which US state?

Pennsylvania remained home to the end: Keith Haring's ashes were scattered in a field near Kutztown, which dedicated a historical marker to him in 2024.

Which children's author shaped the young Keith Haring, alongside Walt Disney and Charles Schulz?

Dr. Seuss shared that list with the Looney Tunes characters of The Bugs Bunny Show, and Keith Haring spent time drawing with his father from a very young age.

Keith Haring painted the body of which singer for her vampire queen role in the 1986 film Vamp?

Grace Jones first wore his painted lines for an Interview magazine shoot in 1984, and Keith Haring later painted a skirt for one of her music videos.

Keith Haring wrote a Vogue obituary and painted a pile of crowns for which artist friend in 1988?

Jean-Michel Basquiat had been a friend since student days, when he wrote his SAMO graffiti around the campus where Keith Haring studied.

Keith Haring and hundreds of kids made a 90-foot banner in 1986 for which landmark's centennial?

The Statue of Liberty banner, CityKids Speak on Liberty, was made with the CityKids Foundation: Keith Haring painted Lady Liberty's outline and the young people filled it with their own thoughts on liberty.

Which Swiss company introduced a line of watches designed by Keith Haring in 1985?

Swatch was one of several brands he worked with in the 1980s; Keith Haring also created an advertising campaign for Absolut vodka.

In 1982 Keith Haring's animations lit up a giant electronic billboard in which part of New York?

Times Square had the Spectacolor board, and Keith Haring was the first of twelve artists invited by the Public Art Fund to show work on it.

In which Italian city did Keith Haring paint Tuttomondo, a vast 1989 mural on the wall of a church?

Pisa got the mural after an Italian student met Keith Haring by chance on a New York street. It took a week to paint and shows 30 figures.

Keith Haring drew the cover of which 1987 benefit album of holiday songs, produced by Jimmy Iovine?

A Very Special Christmas has raised millions of dollars for the Special Olympics and shipped four million copies in the United States.

Keith Haring moved to New York in 1978 to study painting at which Manhattan college?

School of Visual Arts gave him room to experiment with video and performance art while Keith Haring worked as a busboy at a nightclub.

What did Keith Haring call the New York subway, where he tried out ideas on empty ad panels?

His laboratory closed in 1986: Keith Haring stopped drawing there once his store opened, partly because people were taking the drawings to sell.

Keith Haring's art fills the front cover of Without You, a 1983 single by which British star?

David Bowie took the single from his album Let's Dance, and the same year Keith Haring drew a sleeve for Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock.

Keith Haring made a painting for which famine-relief concert, staged at JFK Stadium in July 1985?

Live Aid was one of several famine-relief efforts he joined that year: Keith Haring also painted a car to be auctioned for the same cause.

Keith Haring opened a second branch of his store in which city in 1988, closing it within months?

Tokyo's branch was built from painted containers, but sales disappointed and Keith Haring blamed the well-made fakes on sale all over the city.

For Luna Luna, a 1987 art amusement park in Hamburg, Keith Haring designed which fairground ride?

A carousel with seats shaped like characters and painted all over with his symbols was his contribution. The park's rides then spent decades in storage before a 2023 revival.

Which British designer turned Keith Haring's drawings into fabric prints for her Witches collection?

Vivienne Westwood was given two large sheets of drawings to use as she wished, and she printed Keith Haring's shapes straight onto the garments.

Which room of New York's LGBT Community Center did Keith Haring choose for his 1989 mural?

A men's bathroom on the second floor got the mural, Once Upon a Time. The fixtures have since been removed, and the room is now used for meetings.

Keith Haring painted the 1989 mural Todos Juntos Podemos Parar el SIDA, about AIDS, in which city?

Barcelona's mural was suggested by a restaurateur friend, and Keith Haring agreed on condition that he could choose the spot himself.

Keith Haring is one of the first 50 names on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor in which New York bar?

The Stonewall Inn wall was unveiled in 2019 for the 50th anniversary of the riots there, which Keith Haring had marked with T-shirt designs in 1989.

A viral 2023 post drew anger for using what to finish Keith Haring's Unfinished Painting?

AI software filled the bare canvas with random zigzags, missing the point: Keith Haring left it incomplete in 1989 to stand for a life cut short by AIDS.

Keith Haring's father Allen, who drew with him in childhood, was an engineer and an amateur what?

Cartoonist was only a hobby for Allen Haring, but the basic skills he passed on gave Keith Haring his first lessons in drawing.

Which relative wrote the 2017 children's book Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing?

His sister Kay Haring wrote it; Keith Haring was the eldest of four children and the only boy, followed by Kay, Karen and Kristen.

Which Beat writer's cut-up method inspired the fake headlines Keith Haring pasted around Manhattan?

William S. Burroughs shared the cut-up method with Brion Gysin, and in 1980 Keith Haring glued hundreds of his invented headlines to lamp-posts.

As a student in New York, Keith Haring worked as a busboy at which famous new wave nightclub?

Danceteria was a centre of New York's new wave scene, and many of the musicians and artists among its regulars became famous during the 1980s.

Which painter was Keith Haring's art school classmate and one-time roommate in New York?

Kenny Scharf built his first Cosmic Closet, a black-light installation, in the apartment he and Keith Haring shared in 1981.

Which Manhattan church held Keith Haring's memorial on what would have been his 32nd birthday?

St. John the Divine drew more than 1,000 mourners, and it holds a cast of the altarpiece Keith Haring finished two weeks before he died.

Keith Haring was among the first honorees of the Rainbow Honor Walk, in which US city?

San Francisco laid out the walk of fame in its Castro neighbourhood in 2014 to honour LGBTQ people who made significant contributions in their fields.

Keith Haring's heritage-listed 1984 mural on a Collingwood college wall is in which Australian city?

Melbourne students painted the yellow background one day, and Keith Haring added the red and green figures the next.

Keith Haring's Tower, an 88-foot mural painted to amuse children in hospital, stands in which city?

Paris kept the painted stairwell even after the hospital building around it was demolished; it took three days, a crane and no preparatory sketches.

Keith Haring: Double Retrospect, made from 32 of his works, set a world record as the largest what?

Jigsaw puzzle maker Ravensburger cut it into 32,256 pieces; assembled, it measures about 17 feet by 6 and weighs 42 pounds.

Which teenage graffiti writer, met in 1981, became Keith Haring's key collaborator?

LA II, born Angel Ortiz, was 14 when they met and filled the drawings with his tags; Keith Haring said they hit it off at once and called him a little brother.

Which SoHo gallery owner gave Keith Haring his 1982 breakthrough show and represented him for life?

Tony Shafrazi had a notorious past of his own: in 1974 he spray-painted words across Picasso's Guernica at the Museum of Modern Art.

Which photographer friend took more than 40,000 pictures of Keith Haring at work in the 1980s?

Tseng Kwong Chi shot the subway drawings for the 1984 book Art in Transit; Keith Haring wrote that photography mattered because so much of his work was temporary.

Which Robert Henri book convinced Keith Haring to quit training as a commercial illustrator?

The Art Spirit, a manifesto for the independence of the artist, sent Keith Haring off to study and work on his own; a solo exhibition followed in 1978.

Which artist, famed for wrapping landmarks in fabric, gave a 1978 talk that inspired Keith Haring?

Christo showed him ways of bringing the public into art, and Running Fence, a fabric fence across 24.5 miles of California hills, especially impressed Keith Haring.

Keith Haring designed campaign materials for which New York mayor, who later spoke at his memorial?

David Dinkins told mourners that Keith Haring's generosity stood out even in a city known for philanthropy.

Keith Haring designed the 1983 poster for which jazz festival, held each July beside Lake Geneva?

Montreux asked Keith Haring back for its 1986 poster, which was also used for the Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival in the United States.

At which New York club, home to DJ Larry Levan, did Keith Haring meet his boyfriend Juan Rivera?

Paradise Garage came into his life through Bobby Breslau, a friend Keith Haring called his 'Jewish mother', who introduced him to its resident DJ.

In 1988 Keith Haring joined the artists who have designed a label for which Bordeaux wine estate?

Mouton Rothschild has put a different artist's work on its label each year since the 1940s, among them Picasso, Miró and Salvador Dalí.

Which subject did Keith Haring study under artist Bill Beckley, shaping his language of symbols?

Semiotics, the study of signs, suited Keith Haring, who built a repeatable vocabulary of dogs, flying saucers and dancing figures.