Keith Haring In The Heartland

Few artists are more closely associated with New York than Keith Haring (1958–1990), who rose to international fame in the early 1980s for his spontaneous chalk drawings on sheets of black paper used to cover advertisements in subway stations. He produced more than 5,000 during his career.

A couple of exhibits now on view, however, recall Haring's visits to the Midwest where his charm and talent were no less appreciated than in Manhattan.

Keith Haring in Iowa

It's hard to believe. An art teacher at Horn Elementary School in Iowa sending a postcard to Haring begins an exchange of letters and care packages between the famous artist and the 11- and 12-year-olds. An exchange that would result in Haring traveling to the school in 1984 for “Keith Haring in Iowa City,” a three-day artist residency developed in partnership with the University of Iowa.

“He was young and he did graffiti and he could draw anything,” Collen Ernst, the Iowa City art teacher who first contacted Haring in 1982, told Forbes.com why, of all artists, chose him to try to contact. “I felt that children would relate to their images, which are simple, two-dimensional and colorful.”

She couldn't believe he actually answered. But he did, and on that first visit he held drawing workshops, created a canvas painting as part of a public performance, and shared the vision of his artistic creation during a public lecture.

Not surprisingly, given the joy and childlike wonder with which he seemed to approach his life and art, Ernst recalls that he was perfect with students.

“The children were captivated by his art and his welcoming presence,” she recalls. “Keith treated the children with respect and invited their input as he painted. The creativity just seemed to flow from him.”

Haring's relationship with the school reached its peak in 1989, at the height of his fame and less than a year before his death, when the artist returned one day on May 22 : “Keith Haring Day”. While there, he painted a mural, A book full of fun, in the school library. He solicited suggestions from students and incorporated them in real time. Depicting a thought bubble above an open book, the symbolic mural overflows with creative characters, visual puns, letters and numbers in a tribute to students' literary imaginations.

A book full of fun takes center stage during the exhibit “To My Friends at Horn: Keith Haring and Iowa City,” at the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art. Haring addressed his correspondence with the school, “To All My Friends at Horn,” inspiring the name of the presentation.

The opportunity to display Haring's mural at the museum comes as a result of planned construction at Horn Elementary School, which requires the mural's temporary relocation. In July 2023, Stanley partnered with the school to conserve the artwork. In doing so, conservators removed the mural, along with part of the wall it was attached to, and safely transported the 4,000-pound structure to the Museum, where it will remain until it can be reinstalled safely to Horn by 2025.

Stanley's exhibition marks the public debut of A book full of fun and the artwork's first appearance alongside the 12-foot-long mural Haring painted on canvas during his 1984 artist residency.

Additional works by Haring featured in the show contextualize his visits within his meteoric career. Community stories are also incorporated, including interviews with former students, related photographs, drawings and other memorabilia that reveal the artist's lasting impact on Iowa City.

This story, of course, does not have a happy ending. Haring died of AIDS-related causes in New York at the age of 31.

What did “Dr. Art” say to his students when he heard the news?

“It's just that he was dead. The news shocked me and I couldn't do much more than that,” Ernst said. “I was very upset and had to take time off from work. After Keith's death, I was inundated with calls from parents, teachers and administrators offering their condolences. It was as if a member of my family would have died.”

The Keith Haring exhibit in Iowa City is on view through January 7, 2025.

Keith Haring in Minnesota

Less than two weeks before visiting Harn Elementary School in 1984, Haring made another trip to the Midwest, this one as part of a residency at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where he also worked with local youth and produced a mural on a large scale

“The Walker's invitation to Keith Haring coincided with his established track record of work in exhibitions and residencies with emerging artists, which is still a hallmark of the museum's program today,” Siri Engberg, Senior Curator and Visual Director of the Walker Art Center. Arts, he told Forbes.com. “The Walker was fortunate to have been able to work with Haring as her career was gaining momentum. By 1984, Haring had already earned a significant national and international reputation, and numerous museums were in demand for exhibition opportunities and public art “.

Forty years later, the Walker turns to Haring again with “Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody,” a major exhibition about his life and artistic creation that includes more than 100 works from the entire span of his career , including important paintings, sculptures and drawings. The mural he did there in 1984 was temporary.

Walker's presentation features archival materials on loan from the Keith Haring Foundation, including videos, photographs and significant source material from the artist's personal journals. In addition, the Walker's iteration of the exhibition originally organized by The Broad in Los Angeles is complemented by a selection of rare Haring-related video, audio, photographs and ephemera from the Walker's archive.

“Haring had a remarkable ability to use his characters to express the complexities of humanity,” Engberg said of Haring's enduring appeal. “He was able to deploy his characters, such as the beaming baby, the barking dog or the dancing figure, to express exuberant optimism as well as social and political content, often within the same work.”

Haring took on the most pressing challenges of his time: AIDS, gay rights, apartheid in South Africa, capitalism, race, striking the delicate balance of effectively sharing a serious message in a light-hearted way.

“Haring felt an urgent sense of responsibility to use his growing popularity as a platform for social and political causes,” Engberg said. “By using his distinctive line to create a visual language that was easily recognizable, he was also able to communicate important messages to an audience eager to hear his voice.”

The exhibition also includes a section dedicated to Haring's famous Pop Shop, opened in 1986 in the SoHo neighborhood of New York.

“The Pop Shop, which Haring launched after he stopped doing chalk drawings in the subway system, was another effort through which he was able to disseminate his images in a democratic way,” Engberg explained. “Their ethos was 'Art is for everyone,' and the Pop Shop, which carried inexpensive items from buttons to T-shirt stickers, was accessible, fun and popular. Painted floor to ceiling with the drawings of Haring, the space was part art installation, part commercial environment.

Like the original, the gallery recreation is covered wall-to-wall in Haring's line drawings and will display vintage merchandise from the original Pop Shop.

“Keith Haring: Art is for Everyone” is on view at the Walker through September 8, 2024.