Keith Haring was an American artist. His cartoon-like paintings and drawings were among others on AIDS, sex, drugs and apartheid.
By books and museums, he became acquainted with contemporary art and the work of Andy Warhol, Pierre Alechinsky, Christo and Jean Dubuffet influenced him. He studied at the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh. In 1976 he had his first major exhibition in Pittsburgh. Around this time his style was clear: abstract figures that are infinite in each other, and those huge spaces can fill.
In 1978 he moved to New York and received a scholarship to study at The School of Visual Arts. In the subway he discovered art in the graffiti, he made chalk drawings on blank billboards, made drawings on the street and got more and more notoriety.
Haring also made many decorative arts, such as vases and T-shirts. Affordable products to a wide audience he sold in its own stores in New York City and Tokyo: The Pop Shop. In 1985 he decorated the body of singer Grace Jones and worked on her video "I'm Not Perfect '.
In Amsterdam there's one of Haring's surviving murals. Also in the casino of Knokke may be found wall paintings from him.
Keith Haring died in 1990 from the effects of AIDS.