KEITH HARING

Part of the 1980s downtown New York art scene, befriending visual artists and performers like Any Warhol, Basquiat and Madonna Keith Haring was a pioneer in the urban art movement. His street art and murals meant he was arrested multiple times for vandalism by the NYPD , “More than once I've been taken to a station handcuffed by a cop who realised, much to his dismay, that the other cops in the precinct are my fans and were anxious to meet me and shake my hand'.
By 1984, Haring’s artwork was so popular that people would steal his chalk drawings from subway stations and sell them. He travelled the world to paint public murals in cities including Paris, Berlin, Pisa, Sydney, Melbourne and Rio de Janeiro, painting at children’s hospitals, charities, churches and orphanages. The Keith Haring Foundation was founded in 1989 after his AIDS diagnosis and continues to give funding to children’s charities, AIDS research and AIDS education through managing and licensing his artwork through retailers such as us.