Keith Haring

Keith Haring appears in the diary as an artist whose work and presence move easily between the street, the gallery, the club, and Warhol’s own circle. Warhol records Haring’s graffiti-derived figures, his studio practice, public projects, parties, and encounters with young people, while also following his exhibitions and commercial ventures. Their connection is affectionate and professionally useful, but not without friction: Warhol’s candid jealousy over Sean Lennon’s fondness for Haring gives the relationship a distinctly personal edge.

Identity and Artistic Practice

Haring is introduced through the visual language for which he was known: figures painted across the city, described by Warhol as graffiti. A visit to his large SoHo studio offered a glimpse of the work’s process. The space rented for $1,000 a month had no bathroom; inside, a Puerto Rican youth was doing the writing in Haring’s graffiti paintings. Haring explained that he painted around the words, leaving Warhol unsure how to divide the two artists’ contributions. The scene presents the work not as a solitary signature but as an activity involving other people, even as Warhol struggles to understand exactly who makes what.

The diary also records Haring’s attention to public space. Warhol and his companions visited the site of the Candy Store, a brownstone on Avenue D and Second Street that Haring had painted in red, green, blue, and purple to resemble a storefront. Haring explained that drugs, including heroin, were sold inside. The painted exterior and the activity within it make the building a charged example of his interest in the city and the people who occupied it; Warhol records Haring saying that he wanted to be around young people he considered exciting.

Other works surface in less formal settings. A large chalk drawing of a pregnant woman on 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue, initially only suspected to be Haring’s, was confirmed as his, and Warhol’s circle tried to obtain it. At Warhol’s office, Haring painted a large elephant black and white over a red base. Warhol admired the result and called Haring a cartoonist, while distinguishing his work from Peter Max’s. These entries show Haring making images on walls, on a large object at the office, and in the studio, rather than confining his practice to gallery pictures.

Exhibitions, Recognition, and Work

Haring’s exhibitions recur in the diary as occasions for both social contact and professional assessment. At the Fun Gallery on the Lower East Side, Warhol encountered René Ricard, who greeted him with an exuberant remark about seeing him everywhere from the sixties into the eighties. When Warhol raised Ricard’s negative comments in the Edie book, Ricard said Warhol should have seen the text before it was cut. The opening thus placed Haring’s show amid older art-world relationships and their lingering grievances.

Warhol later tried to secure an Interview cover for Haring. He thought it would be timely to put an artist on the cover because art had become so prominent, but the proposal was rejected, and the magazine appeared likely to use Miguel Bosé instead. The episode shows Warhol trying to convert Haring’s growing visibility into editorial recognition, while also revealing the limits of his influence within the magazine.

When Haring was depressed, he went to the Whitney Museum of American Art and saw a Pop Art exhibition that included Warhol’s Dick Tracy. He praised the painting after learning it had sold for $500,000, telling Warhol it was worth a million and that he would have bought it if he had had the money. Warhol found the compliment touching. Si Newhouse had bought the work from Irving Blum. Haring’s response was more than praise: it connected personal encouragement with a concrete judgment about the painting’s value.

Warhol’s account of the elephant also turns toward the mechanisms by which artists acquire prices and reputations. He contrasted Haring with Peter Max, whom he described as a businessman trying to be an artist, and explained how wealthy buyers, social proximity, and recommendations among friends could establish a price. He offered Julian Schnabel’s connection with Philip Niarchos as an example. The diary does not present Haring’s own market strategy in equivalent detail, but its juxtaposition of the elephant, gallery shows, and Warhol’s discussion of portrait prices places Haring within an art world where artistic identity and commercial standing were continually negotiated.

Public Life, Collaborations, and Community

Haring’s social world is recorded as an extension of his art rather than a separate sphere. For the closing of a Keith Haring exhibition at the Shafrazi Gallery, Chris Makos invited Warhol and others. Haring’s boyfriend was there, along with about 400 Black young people. Warhol compared the gathering to the sixties while noting the difference in its racial makeup. The entry captures Haring’s ability to draw a large, youthful crowd and the way that crowd itself became part of the event’s meaning.

At a later visit, Haring arrived after receiving a B-12 injection and spoke passionately about Michael Stewart, a Black graffiti artist who had died after an encounter with police. Haring said he himself had been arrested four times, but that officers let him go because he looked ordinary, sometimes dismissing him with a slur. Warhol’s account sets Haring’s experience beside Stewart’s death and records Haring’s anger at the difference in how the two men had been treated. It gives his graffiti practice a context of policing and unequal vulnerability, without reducing his response to an abstract position.

Haring also worked across fashion, photography, and performance. During a photo session of Grace Jones for Interview, he provided special makeup. At Area, Warhol watched him make dresses on John Sex. At a party at Paradise Garage, John Sex performed; Madonna began so late that Warhol heard only the start. The party was free, though young people outside were selling tickets. Haring’s Juan wore Day-Glo, and the scene reminded Warhol of the sixties. At another visit, Warhol introduced Bianca Jagger to Haring over lunch at Café Seiyoken. Bianca said she wanted to interview Haring for Interview, along with other artists; Warhol privately suspected she might also want a free mural for her apartment, but records that as his own guess, not as her stated plan.

Children and young people appear repeatedly around Haring. At one gathering, Sean Lennon sat between Warhol and Roberta Flack, wearing gloves given to him by Max Leroy. Haring got along readily with Sean and played with another baby, approaching the child with a stuffed animal. Warhol’s later account of a Whitney Museum party he hosted for Haring and Kenny Scharf includes Haring asking which major movie stars Warhol was bringing, and wondering why Nick Rhodes had not called. These brief encounters show Haring as socially attentive and comfortable in mixed-age company, as well as someone with his own expectations of celebrity and connection.

Friendship, Tension, and Later Developments

Warhol’s entries make clear that admiration did not prevent competition or hurt feelings. He and Haring gave Madonna paintings as a wedding present. When People wanted to photograph them, Warhol initially refused, then told the magazine to try Haring. Martin Burgoyne later said Madonna was upset that the paintings had been photographed and that she hated them for allowing it. Warhol replied that Burgoyne should have made her stop hating them. The account traces the fallout through a small chain of decisions: a refusal, a referral, the photographs, and the resulting resentment.

At a later opening, Haring’s work seemed different to Warhol: it looked as though Haring had worked faster in order to have more to show, and the result appeared less planned. Warhol’s observation is brief, but it records a perceived change in the work rather than treating each exhibition as interchangeable. Elsewhere, he notes that Haring was away in Brazil, while comparing the prices artists could command. The diary places travel, productivity, and valuation alongside the recurring rhythm of openings and parties.

Haring’s enterprise expanded beyond exhibitions when he opened the Pop Shop. Warhol visited with Paige Powell and found five employees: two managers and three young workers, each paid $8 an hour. The store was difficult to find because it stood slightly out of the way, but people were already inside, and Warhol bought watches. The entry registers both the practical challenge of its location and the fact that customers came. Haring’s imagery had entered a retail setting, supported by a small staff and a business with ordinary wages and daily operations.

The diary’s final portrait of their connection is intimate and unsettled. At Haring’s opening before a European trip, Warhol thought the work looked faster and less carefully planned. Yoko Ono was there with Sam, but Sean had gone to a birthday party of his own. Warhol later asked Haring where Sean was, deliberately drawing attention to the boy’s absence. He admitted that the gesture was mean and explained the feeling beneath it: he was still jealous that Sean liked Haring better than him. Haring’s place in these entries therefore exceeds that of a fellow artist. He is a collaborator, a host, a public figure, and a person whose ease with others exposes Warhol’s own longing to be preferred.