Keith Haring Kutztown (Littman p.135) For Sale

Kutztown is a screenprint created by the artist in 1989. The work’s title is the place of Keith Haring’s hometown in Pennsylvania, USA, where he was born in 1958. Intimate and reflective, the print is a rare insight into the celebrated artist’s personal life and childhood. 

Known for his immersion in the vibrant and artistic scene of New York’s East Village, where he frequented nightclubs and created public drawings in the subway, Haring was from humble beginnings. His father Allen was an engineer and cartoonist. They were a conservative family, and attended their local church on Sundays. Kutztown honours Haring’s parents: a male figure wearing a bowler hat and a female figure wearing a shawl or headscarf appear against a background of landscape. Their old-fashioned clothing perhaps represents their traditional values, a far cry from the suggestive and unconventional trends and style of downtown city life in the eighties.  

The work makes clear that although the artist was, at the time of the work’s creation, at the height of his prolificacy, he held his roots close to heart. Haring would later create a series of works to benefit an arts programme in his hometown, The Kutztown Connection, a testament to the artist’s legacy.