About Keith Haring, Art in Transit: Subway Drawings with Photos by Tseng Kwong Chi: This highly collectible & well preserved 1984 Keith Haring monograph examines them much historic & seminal chalk drawings done by Keith Haring on blank advertising spaces in the New York City subway during the early 1980s. "An art book, a photography book, a collection of graphic jokes, a celebration of city life, a happening...'Art in Transit' is a collection of Keith Haring's subway drawings, which lights up the subterranean vistas of the New York City subways with radiant energy." (publisher’s statement) Soft cover; 95 pages; 1st edition 1984. Approximately 8 x 11.5 inches. Very good overall vintage condition with some slight shelf-wear. String spine; well-preserved. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. Introduction by Henry Geldzahler with a statement by Keith Haring. Photo documentation by Tseng Kwong Chi. Artist Statement: “I have been drawing in the subway for three years now, and although my career aboveground has skyrocketed, the subway is still my favorite place to draw. There is something very “real” about the subway system and the people who travel in it; perhaps there is not another place in the world where people of such diverse appearance, background, and life-style have intermingled for a common purpose. In this underground environment, one can often feel a sense of oppression and struggle in the vast assortment of faces. It is in this context that an expression of hope and beauty carries the greatest rewards.“ (source: Keith Haring Foundation). Keith Haring was an American artist and social activist known for his illustrative depictions of figures and symbols. His white chalk drawings could often been found on the blank poster marquees in New York’s public spaces and subways. “I don't think art is propaganda,” he once stated. “It should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.” Born on May 4, 1958 in Reading, PA, he grew up in neighboring Kutztown, where he was inspired to draw from an early age by Walt Disney cartoons and his father who was an amateur cartoonist. After briefly studying commercial art in Pittsburgh, Haring came across a show of the works of Pierre Alechinksy and decided to pursue a career in fine art instead. He moved to New York in the late 1970s to attend the School of Visual Arts, and soon immersed himself in the city’s graffiti culture. By the mid-1980s, he had befriended fellow artists Andy Warhol, Kenny Scharf, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and collaborated with celebrities like the singer Grace Jones. Diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1988, Haring’s prodigious career was brief, and he died of AIDS-related complications on February 16, 1990 at the age of 31. Before his death, Haring established the Keith Haring Foundation, a non-profit committed to raising awareness of the illness through art programing and community outreach. Throughout his career, Haring made his art widely available through the location of his murals, as well as through the Pop Shop—Haring's own storefront which he used to sell his memorabilia.The artist’s mural Crack is Wack (1986), can still be seen today on a retaining wall along FDR Drive in Manhattan. Haring’s works can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Related Categories Street Art. Graffiti Art. Pop Art. East Village. Keith Haring. Futura 2000. Subway Art. East Village art.