Early 1980s Breakthrough Years: Works Of Keith Haring On Exhibit In East Village
From subway artist to international renown, an exhibit at The Brant Foundation traces the formative years of Keith Haring.
Featured images: Keith Haring, Untitled, 1981 Sumi ink and acrylic on paper 107 x 186 inches © Keith Haring Foundation. Private Collection.
In the 1980s, a queer transplant to New York City would likely have found themselves at the now-called Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. For people new to the city, “The Center” was a gay hub and resource in a time when there were few. And if you happened upon The Center’s bathroom in 1989, you would have seen Keith Haring’s graffiti-style art on the wall. By then, he had risen from chalk subway artist to one of the most defining figures in American art, along with greats like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf and Andy Warhol, his friends and collaborators in the East Village’s vibrant art scene.
Now, works from Haring’s formative years of 1980 to 1983 are on view at The Brant Foundation’s East Village space, in the neighborhood where Haring got his start.
Image: Keith Haring’s 1989 mural, ‘Once Upon A Time,’ which celebrates sexual liberation in the days before the AIDS epidemic – in Bathroom of LGBTQ Community Center‘ via Facebook
“We are honored to be working again with Dr. Dieter Buchhartand Dr. Anna Karina Hofbauer to present an important selection of works by Keith Haring from a pivotal moment in the artist’s career and in our Nation’s history,” said The Brant Foundation’s founder, Peter M. Brant in a written statement shared with GO. “Haring was a champion for important causes of his time, particularly the AIDS crisis. He used his art to support his tireless activism and advocate for change, inspiring millions with his distinct style.”
By the late 1980s, New York City was experiencing a full-blown AIDS epidemic. Ketih Haring was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988. One year later, he established the Keith Haring Foundation which today maintains its original mandate: to protect the legacy of Keith Haring, his art and ideals – and to provide funding for children, as well as organizations involved in education, prevention, and care related to AIDS.
In his lifetime, Haring created over 5000 chalk drawings in New York City subway stations, and produced more than 50 public art works from 1982 to 1989, many for charities, hospitals, day care centers and orphanages. Among the body of public artworks: the Crack is Wack mural of 1986, impossible to miss along New York City’s FDR Drive. He also designed sets and backdrops for theaters and clubs, developed watch designs for Swatch and an ad campaign for Absolut vodka in 1986 -– plus left his imprint around the world with his many murals.
Image: Keith Haring, Untitled, 1982, Enamel and DayGlo on metal, 72 x 90.5 in. © Keith Haring Foundation, The Masterworks Foundation
While his career spanned only about a decade, his work was featured in over 100 solo and group exhibitions. As per his Foundation, he collaborated with artists and performers that included Madonna, Grace Jones, Bill T. Jones, William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol, whose mentorship and support helped bring up a number of 1980s downtown scene artists.
Omage: Keith Haring, Untitled, 1982 Sumi ink on paper © Keith Haring Foundation. Collection of Braun Family Foundation
“By expressing universal concepts of birth, death, love, sex and war, using a primacy of line and directness of message, Haring was able to attract a wide audience and assure the accessibility and staying power of his imagery, which has become a universally recognized visual language of the 20th century,” The Keith Haring Foundation notes.
Keith Haring died of AIDS-related complications, at the age of 31, on February 16, 1990. Only two years earlier, the activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was born at a meeting on March 12, 1987 – two days after a speech by playwright Larry Kramer with his impassioned demands for government response. It was held at the then-called Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center where Haring’s art remains intact on the walls to this day – along with his spirit of activism.
Image: Ignorance = Fear, Silence = Death, Act Up poster, 1989
Co-curator Dr. Dieter Buchhartand has cited “the timelessness” of Haring’s work as inspiration for the current exhibition, stating, “Like a positive humanist virus, Haring’s urban guerrilla art lives on in our collective memory, fighting against ignorance, fear, and silence. His humanist code resonates with a universality that transcends time and place. And in the spirit of today’s Emoji euphoria, we might well proclaim: For better or worse, we are all speaking Haring now.”
Image: Keith Haring at The Brant Foundation Image © Tom Powell Imaging
The Brant Foundation’s exhbition of Keith Haring is on display through May 31, 2026 at 421 East 6th Street, New York, NY. Infomation on tickets, tours, and discounts here.
