Keith Haring Foundation

The 41st annual AIDS Walk New York takes place in Central Park on Sunday, May 17th, in support of GMHC’s services for New Yorkers living with and affected by HIV and AIDS. Craig R. Miller founded AIDS Walk New York in 1986 and the event has since raised over $170M for HIV and AIDS service organizations in the tri-state area. In 1989, Keith Haring drew the logo for the 3rd annual AIDS Walk in Washington D.C during his battle with the virus. The Keith Haring Foundation has been proud to support this event since 2011 and to uphold the life-saving work that GMHC provides to New Yorkers. ▪️Please register to attend AIDS Walk New York 26’ at aidswalkny.org. •@aidswalkny •@gmhc - Artwork: Keith Haring, AIDS Walk Logo, May 11th, 1989. Keith Haring Foundation Collection, The Keith Haring Foundation.

On May 4th, 1958, Keith Haring was born. Today we celebrate what would have been Keith’s 68th birthday and the legacy he created through his artwork and the foundation he established in 1989. - Photographs: Keith Haring Decorating his Birthday Cake at Le Train Bleu in Paris, 1987. Photos by Tseng Kwong Chi. © Tseng Kwong Chi.

Giorno Poetry Systems announced yesterday the inaugural Treat a Stranger Grant, supporting 12 nominated artists with their cost-of-living expenses. It is a new iteration of GPS’s AIDS Treatment Project (1984 to 1994), which Keith Haring directly supported in 1989. The Keith Haring Foundation honors that legacy of friendship and mutual aid and is proud to support @giorno_poetry_systems ’ grants program relaunch. Learn more about the artists receiving the 2026 Treat a Stranger Grant through the GPS website. - Photograph: Keith Haring, William S. Burroughs, and John Giorno in Kansas, 1987. Photos by Tseng Kwong Chi, 1987. © Tseng Kwong Chi.

In September 1985, Keith Haring’s poster “New York is Book Country” announced the New York Book Fair, held along Fifth Avenue in support of New York Public Library’s Children’s Services. Happy World Book Day! Artwork: Keith Haring, New York is Book Country, 1985. Offset lithograph in black, yellow, and red. Printed by Panorama Press Inc. Keith Haring Foundation Collection, The Keith Haring Foundation. @nypl @nyplyounglions

It’s easy to form an impression of Keith Haring as a loosey-goosey and spontaneous artist, chalking his way through the subways in throwaway bursts of inspiration, then going out to the Paradise Garage with Grace Jones. A dip into his archive shows otherwise. Each morning, he made himself a to-do list and crossed out items as straightforwardly as any middle manager. Shopping-list tasks like “china markers” or “order canvas” sit alongside reminders like “paint sister’s baby furniture.” In these papers, here featured for the first time, you encounter fame that has endured (“Andy” comes up repeatedly), and fame that’s more art insider (John Giorno), and fame evocative of a New York when downtown meant something very specific (“Michael Musto interview”). There are about 400 of these lists in the Keith Haring Foundation archives, most from the mid-to-late 1980s. Haring seems to have genuinely liked the busywork of his days. “And unlike other artists,” Julia Gruen, Haring’s former studio manager and current chair of the foundation’s board said, “he was extraordinarily organized in his studio. He was very tidy — not compulsive, but definitely tidy. And he was very disciplined about getting his work done. Not only what you see on the to-do lists but also creating.” That work ethic is likely one reason he’s still so visible: Even though Haring died at 31, after a career lasting little more than a decade, he left behind an enormous volume of lively artistic output, from fine artworks to posters to Pop Shop buttons. “I don’t want to make him sound like a saint, because he wasn’t,” Gruen said, “but when he cared about something — making certain drawings, making gifts for people, making logos for all these charities that he worked with — he made a point of doing what had to be done.” Read more about the trove of unearthed Keith Haring to-do lists at the link in our bio. Photos: Courtesy of the Keith Haring Foundation Archives © Keith Haring Foundation

In 1985, Keith Haring presented his first series of steel sculptures at Leo Castelli Gallery, accompanied by an exhibition of his paintings at Tony Shafrazi Gallery. Shafrazi encouraged Haring to pursue this new format, telling him to position his “alphabet in the landscape, out there in the real world.” Haring intended his sculptures to directly interact and serve the public — and advocated that they “should be played with.” — Video: Adapted from “Drawing the Line: A Portrait of Keith Haring,” (1989); Directed by Elisabeth Aubert Schlumberger; Released by PBS in 1989 and again by @allartsv in 2019. Text: David Galloway, “Dancing Down Park, The Sculptural Legacy of Keith Haring,” The Estate of Keith Haring and Public Art Fund, “Keith Haring On Park Avenue,” 1997

In August 1986, Keith Haring spent a week painting a mural for the Woodhull Hospital Center in Brooklyn, a member of HHC (New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation). On the occasion of National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day, we recognize the services Woodhull and other HHC hospitals provide to New Yorkers living with HIV & AIDS. We are proud to provide grants to HHC’s hospitals, our most recent supporting perinatal transmission prevention for pregnant patients living with HIV at Jacobi Medical Center and Kings County Hospital Center. — Photographs: Keith Haring, Woodhull Hospital mural, photos by Tseng Kwong Chi, 1986. © Tseng Kwong Chi. — @nychealthsystem @tsengkwongchi

Translatina Network (@translatina_org ) supports transgender communities in New York City and beyond. They offer peer counseling, HIV prevention, support groups, and a community pantry, providing practical resources and a strong sense of community. The Keith Haring Foundation has been proud to support their mission for nearly a decade. #TransDayofVisibility #TDOV — Image 1: Photo courtesy Pexels, 2019; Image 2: Photo courtesy Translatina Network

Keith Haring’s untitled painting from October 1982, composed of enamel and DayGlo on metal, is one of the artist’s many black light paintings—a technique Haring began to explore as early as 1981. This work was included in the infamous black light room of Haring’s 1982 exhibition at Tony Shafrazi Gallery. - Artwork: Keith Haring, Untitled, 1982

Keith Haring reflecting on the origin and intent of his Pop Shop, which opened in spring 1986 at 292 Lafayette Street in SoHo. Video: Adapted from “Drawing the Line: A Portrait of Keith Haring,” (1989); Directed by Elisabeth Aubert Schlumberger; Released by PBS in 1989 and again by @allartsv in 2019.

An exhibition of Keith Haring’s work from 1980-1983 is now open to the public at the East Village location of @thebrantfoundation . “The exhibition, curated by Dr. Dieter Buchhart and Dr. Anna Karina Hofbauer, features a selection of landmark masterworks that defined Haring’s early career. Included are works from the artist’s 1982 exhibition at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, where Haring’s legendary Blacklight Room immersed audiences in glowing, ephemeral color, as well as from the FUN Gallery show of 1983, a pioneering venue on the Lower East Side that championed the fusion of street-art and gallery culture.” Text: The Brant Foundation - Photograph: Tom Powel Imaging; courtesy The Brant Foundation (@thebrantfoundation )

Keith Haring in the kitchen of his Broome Street apartment, circa 1983. Keith and his friends painted the space from floor to ceiling. On the table in front of him is a record player and blender painted by pal @kennyscharf . - Image: Keith Haring in his Broome Street apartment, 1983-1984. Photo: Tseng Kwong Chi. © Tseng Kwong Chi.