He then hitchhiked cross-country and looked at other art programs. After his journey he returned to Pittsburgh and got involved with Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts Center. There his art started to involve small interconnected abstract shapes. He then moved to New York City on a scholarship to the School of Visual Arts. Here he started being inspired by graffiti art.
To him graffiti stood for being hip, spontaneous, and underground, everything he admired. He began to hang his artwork in his school’s hallways, making videotapes and began to write a lot more. Then one day in the subway he saw a empty black panel, this he realized would be the perfect place to display his art, so he bought some white chalk and began his famous subway drawings. People he met while doing his drawings helped him to keep going by there comments, questions, and just their observations which helped him get used to drawing in public.
Then he decided he wanted to sell his art, not for the money, but just so he could quit whatever job he had at the time to pursue his art. After the subway drawing period he opened the Pop Shop so that his work could be seen by people who didn’t have the money to buy his now expensive art.
In 1988, he was diagnosed with AIDS, which was one of the main reasons he started the Keith Haring Foundation, which helped him to continue his support of children’s and other AIDS related organizations. Then on February 16, 1990, Keith died from this deadly disease.
Haring was an artist who merged fine art and popular culture through his symbolic language of lines and symbols. Keith Haring was, is, and always will be one of the most influential artists of all times.
