Keith Allen Haring (* 4 May 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania; † 16 February 1990 in New York City) was a US ArtistHis painting style is recognisable by its clear lines and two-dimensionality. He took some of the methods of his painting from the Graffiti-Scene.[1] Haring is considered a representative of the Pop Art of the 1980s.
Haring produced the first of his so-called "Subway Drawings" in December 1980 and continued them until around 1985. The corridors of the system of New York Subway are equipped with numerous advertising boards. If the boards are not covered with current advertising posters, the fixed frame is covered with black Waste paper as a kind of placeholder. Haring painted these with white Blackboard chalk. A medium that is easy to transport and inexpensive to buy, it allowed him to put his typical continuous line on the black paper quickly, evenly and with extremely high contrast. Moreover, no prior preparation in the studio was necessary, which benefited Haring's intuitive and fast style.[9] He always conceived his pictures in the underground corridors in a similar way. First, a rectangle was drawn as the picture's boundary, sometimes these were numbered as well, thus creating the appearance of a Comic-Strips were awakened. Then they were filled with his typical motifs (barking dogs, UFOs, ray babies, televisions, crosses, people, etc.).
Haring repeatedly emphasised that he deliberately did not give his Subway works titles in order not to provide viewers with an interpretation given by the artist. According to Haring, his works do not have only one meaning or interpretation, but are as diverse as the people who look at them and engage with them.[10] The forms that his works contain are not alien, but easily recognisable, so that even without a given title, every viewer can quickly form his or her own Association can develop. Moreover, his motifs in the New York underground are conceived primarily for a passing public who can grasp the composition of the picture even by glancing at it.[11] Haring painted without sketches and studies, quickly and spontaneously from his feelings without changes. This enabled him to create up to thirty Subway Drawings a day, which added up to a total of about five to ten thousand paintings made in the New York underground system from 1980 to 1985.[12] His portrayals were largely taken by the photographer, who was a friend of his. Tseng Kwong Chi held.[13]
[Excerpt from Wikipedia]