Who was Keith Haring?

Key facts about Keith Haring

Keith Haring was an American artist born in 1958 in Pennsylvania in the USA. He died in 1990.

His work is known as pop art or street art.

Keith's art often showed people and animals. He is well-known for his drawings of a baby, a dog, a television and a flying saucer.

He used to draw on spaces meant for posters and adverts. He cared a lot about making people feel happy and liked working with children.

The art that Keith created was used to express the things he cared about.

Watch Keith Haring and his creations

Keith Haring's art

Keith Haring’s work had its own style, which often included some key features such as:

• thick black outlines
• drawings or marks that are repeated
• drawings that look like cartoons
• drawings and paintings of people and animals
• shorter lines to make things look like they are moving
• bright colours
• using different types of paint

Tools used by Keith Haring

Activity

Did you know?

• Keith Haring liked to listen to hip-hop music while he worked.
• He grew up loving cartoons made by Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney.
• He created a character called Andy Mouse who was a mixture of the famous artist Andy Warhol and Mickey Mouse.

Quiz

Glossary

Here are the meanings of some important words.

Express - To communicate feelings or ideas.
Outline - A line going around an object.
Repeated - When an action happens many times in the same way.