Presentation on Keith Haring

Keith Haring

Hi everyone so today we are going to present you an artist , Keith Haring and his paintings.

Keith Haring was born in Pennsylvania, the 4th may 1958 and he died on 16th febuary 1990 at 31 years old. Keith was a visual artist of the pop art movement  which is the set of artistic phenomenon linked to an era, and the graffiti movement which is the inscription or the drawing made in an illicit way on public spaces. It’s important to know that Haring has always been interested in drawing, At 18 years old he takes drawing classes at the Ivy school of professional Art in Pittsburg

It is his way of drawing, indeed he never makes drafts before and he always paints very quickly.

Then, he moves to New York where he discovers a new means of expression, there he will meet artists and participate in expositions such as Club 57 or the Mudd Club

It was in one of these clubs that one of his pictograms became famous: the Radiant baby

• Radiant Baby

The Radiant Baby is one of the most famous art work of Keith haring. He realized it in 1990 and it became his signature. He did it after teaching in a nursery school in Brooklyn. He said :  « Children personify life in it’s happiest form ». For him, kids symbolize joy, life and purity.

His painting is really simple, we can see an orange baby with four legs that seems to move forward, and around him some features, the painting represents an hoping symbol for the humanity future

• Crack is Wack

The second work of art , crack is wack is a work realized in 1986, which means in French, ''la drogue c'est nul''

This work has a sentimental value for Keith Haring because one of his family members was addicted and he wanted to raise the veil on consumption and warn consumers.

We see in the center of the work a skeleton that can represent the death caused by drugs, there are also full of men on top of each other trying to catch the money that the skeleton holds in his hand, there is a total chaos in the painting caused by this money, which denounces the financial dependence of drugs

• Ignorance = Fear

 The third painting is a poster made in 1989 aiming at preventing young people from HIV, it shows that no one should ignore the disease, because it would become a danger for others.

Thanks to the three characters representing silence and ignorance, it shows the three senses that allow to see, hear and speak. It encourages young people to get informed and thus act to fight against HIV

                                                Conclusion

 All these works show us how Keith Haring puts his art at the service of society and how committed he is to several causes

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