Printed Originals presents
Keith Haring Original posters · 1983–1990 and after
Art for everybody. Printed by the thousand.
29 posters · 18 available now
II · In public
He started on the subway.
- 1980–85 White chalk on black paper
- Unused advertising panels, all over the system
- Up to forty drawings a day
The street was the gallery. The poster was the next step.
The subway and the walls
In 1980 Haring noticed that the subway’s unused advertising panels were covered in matte black paper. He began drawing on them in white chalk, quickly, often in front of commuters who stopped to talk to him. He called the subway his “laboratory”, and kept going until 1985, by which time he was showing in galleries around the world. Between 1982 and 1989 he made more than fifty public works in dozens of cities. The last was Tuttomondo (1989), on the wall of the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Pisa, which still exists. The Pisa 89 poster was issued the same year by the town and the province.
III · New York
Reading → Pittsburgh → New York. Twelve years.
- 1958 Born in Reading, Pennsylvania; grows up in Kutztown
- 1976 Commercial art school, Pittsburgh
- 1978 First solo show, Pittsburgh; moves to New York, School of Visual Arts
- 1980 Subway drawings begin
- 1981 Shows his drawings at Club 57, St. Marks Place
- 1982 First show at Tony Shafrazi
- 1983 Into 84 ↓
- 1986 Opens the Pop Shop, Soho
- 1988 Diagnosed with AIDS
- 1989 Sets up the Keith Haring Foundation
- 1990 Dies, 16 February, aged 31
Club 57, the Pop Shop, the Foundation
Club 57, in a church basement at 57 St. Marks Place, was a no-budget venue for film, performance and art; Haring organised its exhibitions, and MoMA reconstructed the scene in 2017. He collaborated with Andy Warhol and was friends with Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat. In April 1986 he opened the Pop Shop at 292 Lafayette Street, selling T-shirts, toys, posters, buttons and magnets so that his images were available at low cost: in his words, “not only collectors could come, but also kids from the Bronx”. In 1989, a year after his diagnosis, he set up the Foundation to support AIDS organisations and children’s programmes.
Read the bottom edge first.
IV · Commissions and causes
Some posters sold a show. These sold an idea.
More causes he made posters for
- Free South Africa · 1985 About 20,000 handed out in New York, as reported. Not in our archive
- National Coming Out Day · 1988 For the first National Coming Out Day. Not in our archive
- Reading · 1988 A literacy poster for the New York Public Library. Not in our archive
- Ignorance = Fear · 1989 Published by ACT UP, a year after his diagnosis; the Whitney holds one. Not in our archive
Festivals, galleries, brands and causes: he wanted his art wherever people would see it.
- Montreux 1983 17th Jazz Festival, 8–24 July · three colourways, screenprinted in Bern
- Napoli, maggio 1983 Lucio Amelio gallery
- Theater der Welt 85 Frankfurt, 20 September – 6 October
- Absolut 1986 The second artist after Warhol to take on the bottle
- Knokke 87 Casino Knokke, 29 June – 30 August
- Lucky Strike 1987 Three advertising posters
- New York City Ballet 1988 American Music Festival, the company’s 40th year
Crack Is Wack, Crack Down!, and the Berlin Wall
Crack Is Wack is a mural, not a poster. Haring painted it in 1986 on a handball court at 128th Street and 2nd Avenue, without City permission, as a warning; the Parks Department later asked him to paint a new one, which survives. Crack Down! came that autumn: the poster for two benefit concerts organised by the promoter Bill Graham with David Maldonado, at Madison Square Garden on 31 October 1986 and an all-Latin show at the Felt Forum the next night. Free South Africa turned a 1984 painting into a lithograph with the slogan along its lower edge. In 1986 he also painted a section of the Berlin Wall, and BRDDR (1989) followed the opening of the border. Ignorance = Fear / Silence = Death (1989) was published by ACT UP; the Whitney and the V&A hold copies.
V · Signatures
Plate-signed or after?
Haring signed his posters in the plate: his name, a copyright mark and the year, drawn into the design and printed with it. A poster without a hand signature can still be his, made with him, in his lifetime. Posters published after his death in 1990 carry a credit line instead.
Plate-signed
His name, copyright mark and year are drawn into the design and printed with it, so every copy carries them. Made in his lifetime, with him: original Haring posters, without a hand signature.
On this poster: “©K.Haring 87” and his circle mark, printed along the right edge, Lucky Strike, 1987. Available · from £960.00 · View this poster →
Show all 19 in the archive ↓
After Haring
Published after his death by a museum, a gallery or the Foundation, reproducing a work of his. A typeset credit names the estate or the Foundation. Genuine exhibition posters, but not made with him.
On this poster: the typeset credit “Keith Haring artwork © Keith Haring Foundation”, Denver, 2021. Available · from £150.00 · View this poster →
Show all 10 in the archive ↓Hand-signed
Signed by Haring by hand on the copy itself. None of the posters in our archive is hand-signed. Signed screenprints do exist, as separate, smaller editions.
One drawing. Two posters. Ten years apart.
After Haring · 1998
- Made for
- A museum retrospective, eight years after his death
- Lettering
- Typeset title, venue and dates
- Small print
- “Drawing for ‘Headstand’, 1988. © Estate of Keith Haring. Printed in Germany”
- Signature
- None: a credit line names the estate
Plate-signed · 1988
- Made for
- His own gallery show, Galerie Hans Mayer, in his lifetime
- Lettering
- Every word drawn by hand, down to the street address
- Small print
- None needed: the event is part of the drawing
- Signature
- “K.Haring 1988” and his circle mark, printed in the plate
Check three things: who drew the lettering, what the small print says, and the year of the show.
Posters made after 1990
After 1990, museums and publishers kept making Haring posters. They are genuine posters, issued for real exhibitions, but Haring did not design them. They usually reproduce one work with a credit line naming the work and the estate or Foundation, as on our SFMOMA (1998), Denver (2021) and BOZAR (2019) posters. One rule overrides the rest: the date of the image is not the date of the print. Our Homo Decorans carries his 1985 plate mark, but a line at the foot says Louisiana reprinted it in 2018, so it hangs on the after wall.
VI · The walls
29 posters. Two walls.
18 available now · 11 sold. On the yellow wall, everything printed in his lifetime. On the grey wall, posters published after his death. Every poster is marked plate-signed or after; sold posters stay on the wall as a record and show no price.
In his lifetime · 1983–1990
Printed while he was alive, each carrying his mark in the plate.
After his death · 1990 onwards
Published by museums, galleries and the Foundation, reproducing his work.
How many posters did he make?
The Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, which holds a large gift of Haring posters, counts about a hundred made in his lifetime: four in 1982, nine in 1983, then ten to twenty a year. By subject, 23 sociopolitical, 26 for cultural events and 19 for his own exhibitions. Other counts run from about 85 to “over 80”. Every lifetime poster on our wall carries his mark printed in the plate, such as “©K.Haring” or “K.Haring 83”.
VII · Collecting
Collect the printing, not just the picture.
Plate-signed, hand-signed and after: what do they mean?
Plate-signed: his name or mark is printed as part of the design, so every copy carries it; these were made with him, in his lifetime. Hand-signed: signed by him on that copy; none in our archive. After Haring: published after 1990 by a museum, gallery or the Foundation, reproducing his work.
Was it printed in his lifetime?
Look for the event and its dates, and for a plate mark with a year in his hand. Haring died on 16 February 1990, so any show dated after that is a later poster. The yellow wall above holds ours.
Can a reprint carry the original date?
Yes. Our Homo Decorans poster is dated 1985 on the image, but a line at the foot says Louisiana reprinted it in August 2018 for its 60th anniversary.
Who authenticates Haring posters?
Nobody. The Foundation has not accepted authentication requests received after 1 September 2012. We date each poster from what is printed on it, and our authenticity guide sets out what we check. Ask us for detailed photographs of any poster.
Who owns the rights to Haring’s art?
The Keith Haring Foundation owns the international copyright, and any use must be cleared with it in advance. That is why this page shows only our own photographs of our own posters, small.
Condition and framing
Six grades, from Mint to Fair/Poor (condition grading). Framing is optional, and every frame we make is conservation framing (framing original posters).