Exhibition Label

"How can it be possible that apartheid [in South Africa] still exists? Dr. King was speaking against it 20 years ago," wrote artist Keith Haring in exasperation in 1988. Martin Roy's photograph pictures Haring on a New York City subway platform posing beside one of his celebrated white chalk drawings. In this and other works during a meteoric career that lasted just over a decade, Haring demonstrated a commitment to various political and social causes, including apartheid, nuclear disarmament, and especially the AIDS crisis. Although some art critics expressed concern about his efforts to market his work to a mass audience, Haring believed that art should be as accessible as possible: "You can't just stay in your studio and paint; that's not the most effective way to communicate."

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

See more items in

National Portrait Gallery Collection

1989

Object number

NPG.2001.49

Artist

Martin Roy

Sitter

Keith Haring, 4 May 1958 - 16 Feb 1990

Topic

Exterior

Artwork

Keith Haring: Male

Keith Haring: Visual Arts\Artist\Painter

Keith Haring: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist

Keith Haring: Visual Arts\Artist\Painter\Muralist

Portrait

Place

United States\New York\Kings\New York

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image: 36.9 x 24.9 cm (14 1/2 x 9 13/16")

Sheet: 50.4 x 38.7 cm (19 13/16 x 15 1/4")

Mat: 71.1 x 55.9 cm (28 x 22")

National Portrait Gallery

Type

Photograph