Graffiti artistBy: Natalie Simonelli

• Keith Haring was born on May 4, 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania, and was raised in nearby Kutztown, Pennsylvania. He got into drawing at a very young age. He started out learning basic drawing skills from his father and from the popular culture around him, such as Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney.

• Keith Haring first went to the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh, a commercial arts school after graduating from high school in 1976. After two semesters, he dropped out because he didn’t want to work with graphic art. Later that year, he moved to New York City and went to the School of Visual Art.

• Keith Haring influenced some of the work of Andy Warhol.

• Haring was inspired by the work of Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Alechinsky, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Robert Henri’s manifesto The Art Spirit. With these influences Haring was able to create unique works of art that tied life and art together in a different way.

• Keith got his first public attention with chalk drawings in the subways of New York City. “The Radiant Baby” became his symbol.

In 1988, he was diagnosed with AIDS. He created the Keith Haring Foundation in 1989, its was to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organizations and children's programs, and to increase the audience for his work through exhibitions, publications and the licensing of his images. In June 1989, on the rear wall of the convent of the Church of Sant'Antonio in Pisa, he painted the last public work of his life, the mural "Tuttomondo." Haring died in 1990 of an HIV-AIDS related disease.