Keith Allen Haring was an American artist whose pop art and graffiti-like work that drew inspiration from the 1980s New York City street culture, and political activism.

​

Haring's work grew to popularity from his spontaneous illustrations in the New York City subways—chalk outlines of figures, dogs, and other stylized images on blank black advertising-space. After community recognition he was commissioned to create large scale works such as public murals. His work often addressed political and societal themes—often times with a focus on homosexuality, drug usage, and the AIDS crisis. Through his own unique individual style and iconography he was able to create an impressive visual lexicon that everyone could understand and derive meaning from. Accessibility was a large focus in his work, since so much of it was based on activism movements, and the more people that could relate to the pieces , the more his message could be shared and adapted. Religion, his own health related issues living with AIDS, and fear of nuclear disaster after the incident of Three Mile Island came to be some of his more popular subjects in later years.

​

Haring left behind a large legacy; with work in major private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Art Institute of Chicago, the Bass Museum in Miami; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta and many more.