Keith Haring - a Street Artist?

Abstract

Since about 2000 Street Art is an art movement. Before that only a handful of artists did what we call Street Art in 2016. One of them was Keith Haring. But to what extent is Keith Haring in retrospect a Street Artist? Using the example of Haring’s subway chalk drawings (ca. 1980-85) and one of his public murals, called “Crack is Wack” (1986), I discuss concepts such as Street Art, Graffiti and Public Art. Some of Keith Haring’s works are Street Art because he carried them out in a performative way, without permission, in public spaces. They might be called Street Art because those works explicitly refer to this public space, they were indeed often tailor-made for their location, and because as a result of their illegality and their union with each location they were ephemeral, not conceived in time permanently. “Crack is Wack,” however, became a public art mural. It changed its status from an illegal, Graffiti-inspired, self-authorized work of Street Art to long lasting Public Art.