Keith Haring was an activist as well as an artist, creating posters, murals, logos, pins, etc., for causes as wide-ranging as anti-littering and literacy outreach, to AIDS awareness and anti-Apartheid.

His fine artwork also directly addressed social concerns; sometimes using humor, as in the collages he created from New York Post headlines that he Xeroxed and posted around the city; and sometimes illustrating the brutality of the system, such as in Michael Stewart – USA for Africa, a response to the killing of the young graffiti artist Michael Stewart.

Keith occaisionally struggled with feelings of hopelessness in the face bigotry and corruption, but still he fought on however he was able.  Before his death on this date in 1990, he established the Keith Haring Foundation so that it could continue the work he began.

“We go forward, we have the means, but we’re still in the same situation.  And we still fightin’.

By any means necessary.

By any means necessary.

By any means necessary.”

-from Keith Haring’s  journals, July 1988