Keith Haring - a lasting icon

Another blog post inspired by a Google doodle, this time in honour of Keith Haring. As well as being Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you), it's Haring's birthday. Born in 1958, Haring died of AIDS in 1990, but in his short life he created some truly iconic art, ensuring a lasting legacy.

Haring was a real innovator of street art - he wanted his work to speak to all people, rather than being locked away for the elites. He would cover whole buildings with his work, like these:

His work is instantly recognisable: his language was made up of stick figures, a baby, a dog, a flying saucer, a television set and other symbols, all drawn in a bold, simple way. Moreover, certain themes reoccur throughout Haring's work. One of the most common was anti-normative sexual activity. Haring fought constantly - through his art and his actions - to promote equality for the LGBT community and also raise awareness of AIDS.

Another recurring theme in Haring's work is the questioning of society's blind faith in capitalism and religion, questions still relatively unexplored in art at the time.

While I was travelling in the USA last summer, one of my highlights was the Keith Haring 1978-1982 exhibition at the Contemporary Art Centre in Cincinnati. It was incredible to see some unseen early work and videos of him creating pieces at breakneck speed. I was blown away by one painting which took up an entire wall and spent a long time just staring at it. This video with curator Raphaela Platow gives an overview of the exhibition and also explains Haring's genius much better than I can: