KEITH HARING, ARTIST AND ACTIVIST: The Broad Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Keith Haring, Art is for Everyone at The Broad Museum in Los Angeles

For months I had seen light pole banners along the streets of Los Angeles promoting the Keith Haring exhibit at The Broad museum of modern art in downtown LA. Playful polka-dotted creatures danced across each banner. I wanted to see more. 

T-shirts, posters, books, are among the many ways Keith Haring's expressed his creativity.

Keith Haring, Art for Everyone, is an amazing collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, pottery, t-shirts, and art on just about any surface he could draw on. A rotating slide show of his public art on buildings in NYC, subway stations, and elsewhere is projected on the wall outside the entrance to the exhibit. Inside the exhibit his paintings are so numerous they are double-hung to fit them all in.

As a child, Haring learned to draw using Disney characters and Dr. Seuss books a models.

Strong black lines, bright colors, animals (especially snakes) and other imaginative creatures, characterize Haring’s work. 

I couldn't resist having my photo taken through this decorated window.

His art reflects the influence of other artists of the time such as Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Roy Lichtenstein. (You can see examples of their work upstairs at The Broad in the permanent collection.)

Haring designed posters and flyers to promote AIDS awareness.

Keith Haring, born in 1958, worked in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s, producing an enormous quantity of work before dying of AIDS in 1990. In 1988 he created the Keith Haring Foundation to continue his artistic legacy and to provide funding to AIDS organizations for education, research, and care, as well as to groups that work with children and marginalized communities.

Haring protested apartheid in South Africa through his art.

His commitment to speaking out about issues he believed in grew stronger throughout his career. “Haring’s activism was central to his practice. He used his imagery and celebrity to protest apartheid in South Africa, raise awareness of the crack cocaine epidemic, and the AIDS crisis, and support causes from nuclear disarmament to UNICEF.”

In the last room of the exhibit are some of Keith Haring's final works, including a painting with an unfinished corner, providing a clue to his method.

The Keith Haring exhibit at The Broad is the first exhibit of his work in Los Angeles. The exhibit requires a timed paid ticket, available online. (The rest of the art museum is free.) The Keith Haring exhibit closes on October 8, 2023. See it while you can. 

Moses and the Burning Bush, 1985