Keith Haring (1958–1990) arrived in New York from Reading, Pennsylvania in 1978 and spent the next decade producing one of the most sustained and socially engaged bodies of work in the history of American art. Beginning with chalk drawings on the black paper used to cover unused advertising panels in the New York subway — works seen daily by hundreds of thousands of commuters before being erased — he developed a visual language of extraordinary economy and immediate legibility that proved equally powerful on gallery walls, museum canvases, and the sides of buildings worldwide.
His imagery is instantly recognisable: the radiant baby, the barking dog, the dancing figures, the interlocking forms that seem always to be in motion. But beneath the visual warmth and cartoon energy, his work consistently addressed the most urgent social issues of his moment — the AIDS crisis, apartheid, drug addiction, the relationship between power and the body. Haring was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1988 and died in February 1990, at 31. He knew what he was making and why, and the knowledge is present in every mark.
His collaborators included Andy Warhol, Madonna, Grace Jones, and Yoko Ono. By the end of his career his work had featured in over 100 solo and group exhibitions. The Tate Liverpool mounted a major retrospective in 2019; his work is held in the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, and major institutional collections worldwide.
The works available through Creed Gallery include the complete Naples Suite — six original lithographs drawn in 1983 and published by La Galerie de Poche in Paris for the last exhibition held during his lifetime, each impression hand-signed by Haring weeks before his death — and the original 1983 Montreux Jazz Festival posters in three colour variants. Available through Creed Gallery, Ascot, for collectors across Berkshire, Surrey, and London. Private viewings by appointment.
