Art for AIDS

by Michael Jones · 2008-11-28 10:55:00 UTC
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HaringThis coming Monday, December 1, people around the globe will mark World AIDS Day 2008. We'll be posting more about that this weekend, but of quick note is that one of this blog's favorite artists, Keith Haring, is having his legacy make the rounds this Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Haring would have turned 50 this year. But in 1990, Haring died of AIDS.

Haring was a quintessential pop artist, achieving international fame throughout the 1980s for his public art. Among his more famous public art, Haring was commissioned to have a mural created for the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty in 1986, on which he worked with 900 children; a mural on the exterior of Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris, France in 1987; and a mural painted on the western side of the Berlin Wall three years before its fall.

Toward the end of his life, much of Haring's work focused on LGBT issues and HIV/AIDS. His artwork became the logo for National Coming Out Day, and his work on HIV/AIDS is legendary for both addressing a subject at a time when there was much fear and uncertainty about the disease, as well as pushing for activism and dialogue about HIV/AIDS.

Keith Haring balloonThis holiday weekend, two events happened that show Keith Haring's legacy, the strength and significance of public art, and the lasting impact Haring had on activism surrounding HIV/AIDS. The first is, incidentally, very rooted in pop culture. During yesterday's Thanksgiving Day Macy's Parade, parade organizers reconceived one of Keith Haring's ink on paper drawings, Untitled (Figure with Heart), 1987, as a 48-foot tall helium balloon.  (Ironically, this float may have made the biggest chunk of news during yesterday's parade - one of the men holding the balloon in Herald Square smacked into the NBC broadcasting booth, causing parade host Meredith Vieira to yell out an awkward scream.)

Haring art for aidsThe second, and much more tied to the activism that was at the core of Keith Haring's worth in the late 1980s, is that two sculptures by Haring have been donated to UNAIDS to join the “Art for AIDS” collection. The UNAIDS’ Art for AIDS is an art collection created to recognize the role art has played in the response to AIDS. The pieces in the collection have been chosen to provoke thought and dialogue around some of the most difficult issues around AIDS.  Haring's work now joins this collection, merging his dedication to raising awareness about the disease in the final years of his life, to the goal of UNAIDS to get people talking about difficult issues surrounding HIV/AIDS.

For more information on UNAIDS "Art for AIDS" collection, visit their Web site here. For more information on the life and work of Keith Haring, visit the Keith Haring Foundation's Web site here.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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