Innovator: Keith Haring

Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s. Haring grew up in Kutztown and was interested in art from an early age. At age 19 Haring, who was openly gay, moved to New York City, where he was inspired by graffiti art, and studied at the School of Visual Arts. By expressing concepts of birth, death, love, sex and war, Haring's imagery has become a widely recognized visual language of the 20th century. Keith Haring died of AIDS related complications at the age of 31 on February 16, 1990. Since his death, Haring has been the subject of several international retrospectives. The work of Keith Haring can be seen today in the exhibitions and collections of major museums around the world.

In 2007, an area of the American Textile Building in the TriBeCa neighborhood of New York City was discovered to contain a painting of Haring's from 1979. In June 2008 there was an exhibition containing 200 pieces of his work open to the public in Terrassa, Spain.