Keith Haring
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50 free Keith Haring trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Keith Haring packed an astonishing amount into a career that lasted barely a decade. He arrived in New York as a student in 1978, started drawing in the subway, and within a few years his dancing figures and barking dogs were recognised around the world. He died in 1990 at just 31. This quiz collects the fun facts behind the bold lines: where he grew up and who inspired him, how he worked underground and why he got arrested, the murals he painted for hospitals and cities on several continents, the stars and fellow artists he befriended, and the tributes that keep his name alive. It is for art lovers, students, teachers and anyone who has ever worn one of his designs on a T-shirt. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave knowing more than when you started.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Keith Haring made his name drawing on empty black ad panels in the New York subway with what?
White chalk
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.
Q 02Keith Haring was arrested in 1986 after painting which mural on a Harlem handball court?
Crack Is Wack
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.
Q 03In 1986 Keith Haring painted a chain of red and black figures on yellow along which structure?
The Berlin Wall
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.
Q 04Keith Haring fused Mickey Mouse with which Pop artist, his friend and mentor, in 1980s prints?
Andy Warhol
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.
Q 05Which pop star made the last US concert of her 1990 world tour a benefit in memory of Keith Haring?
Madonna
Madonna gave more than $300,000 from the show to AIDS research. She and Keith Haring had been friends since the early 1980s.
Q 06What did Keith Haring call the SoHo store he opened in 1986 to sell T-shirts and posters of his art?
Pop Shop
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.
Q 07Which annual New York event featured a giant Keith Haring figure in 2008, his 50th birthday year?
Macy's Thanksgiving Parade
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.
Q 08Keith Haring painted a mural on the White House lawn in 1988 during which annual children's event?
The Easter Egg Roll
The Easter Egg Roll mural did not stay at the White House: Keith Haring donated it to Children's National Hospital in Washington.
Q 09Which Keith Haring symbol, his most recognized, did he use as a tag to sign subway drawings?
Radiant Baby
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.
Q 10Before fame, Keith Haring hitchhiked across America selling T-shirts he made of which rock band?
Grateful Dead
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.
Q 11Keith Haring was born in Reading and raised in nearby Kutztown, both in which US state?
Pennsylvania
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.
Q 12Which children's author shaped the young Keith Haring, alongside Walt Disney and Charles Schulz?
Dr. Seuss
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.
Q 13Keith Haring painted the body of which singer for her vampire queen role in the 1986 film Vamp?
Grace Jones
Q 21What did Keith Haring call the New York subway, where he tried out ideas on empty ad panels?
His laboratory
His laboratory closed in 1986: Keith Haring stopped drawing there once his store opened, partly because people were taking the drawings to sell.
Q 22Keith Haring's art fills the front cover of Without You, a 1983 single by which British star?
David Bowie
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.
Q 23Keith Haring made a painting for which famine-relief concert, staged at JFK Stadium in July 1985?
Live Aid
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.
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.
Q 14Keith Haring wrote a Vogue obituary and painted a pile of crowns for which artist friend in 1988?
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat had been a friend since student days, when he wrote his SAMO graffiti around the campus where Keith Haring studied.
Q 15Keith Haring and hundreds of kids made a 90-foot banner in 1986 for which landmark's centennial?
The Statue of Liberty
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.
Q 16Which Swiss company introduced a line of watches designed by Keith Haring in 1985?
Swatch
Swatch was one of several brands he worked with in the 1980s; Keith Haring also created an advertising campaign for Absolut vodka.
Q 17In 1982 Keith Haring's animations lit up a giant electronic billboard in which part of New York?
Times Square
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.
Q 18In which Italian city did Keith Haring paint Tuttomondo, a vast 1989 mural on the wall of a church?
Pisa
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.
Q 19Keith Haring drew the cover of which 1987 benefit album of holiday songs, produced by Jimmy Iovine?
A Very Special Christmas
A Very Special Christmas has raised millions of dollars for the Special Olympics and shipped four million copies in the United States.
Q 20Keith Haring moved to New York in 1978 to study painting at which Manhattan college?
School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts gave him room to experiment with video and performance art while Keith Haring worked as a busboy at a nightclub.
Q 24Keith Haring opened a second branch of his store in which city in 1988, closing it within months?
Tokyo
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.
Q 25For Luna Luna, a 1987 art amusement park in Hamburg, Keith Haring designed which fairground ride?
A carousel
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.
Q 26Which British designer turned Keith Haring's drawings into fabric prints for her Witches collection?
Vivienne Westwood
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.
Q 27Which room of New York's LGBT Community Center did Keith Haring choose for his 1989 mural?
A men's bathroom
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.
Q 28Keith Haring painted the 1989 mural Todos Juntos Podemos Parar el SIDA, about AIDS, in which city?
Barcelona
Barcelona's mural was suggested by a restaurateur friend, and Keith Haring agreed on condition that he could choose the spot himself.
Q 29Keith Haring is one of the first 50 names on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor in which New York bar?
The Stonewall Inn
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.
Q 30A viral 2023 post drew anger for using what to finish Keith Haring's Unfinished Painting?
AI software
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.