The Broad in Los Angeles stages a new exhibition, Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody, May 27–Oct. 8. Organized by The Broad, this show will be the first-ever museum exhibition in Los Angeles to present Keith Haring’s expansive body of work, featuring more than 120 works and archival materials.

Known for his use of vibrant color, energetic linework and iconic characters like the barking dog and radiant baby, Haring’s work continues to dissolve barriers between art and life and spread joy, all while being rooted in the creative spirit and mission of his subway drawings and renowned public murals.

© Keith Haring Foundation

Born in 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania, Haring moved to New York City in 1978 to study art. He quickly became a staple within the downtown New York arts community with the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf and Andy Warhol.

Haring’s output in the coming decade can be understood in the spirit of the countercultural and nightlife scenes of the 1980s, often organizing exhibitions at Club 57 nightclub and other alternative venues. This sensibility is palpable in his subway drawings, of which he created more than 5,000 throughout his career, where his visionary use of line could be experimented with in quick movements, available to the wide public who took the New York subway.

Eli and Edythe Broad, who first began to avidly collect contemporary art in the 1980s, were drawn to the social and political nature of Haring’s work early on, first entering the collection in 1982. Forty years later, his legacy continues to garner international acclaim and recognition.

© Keith Haring Foundation

“Keith Haring’s global influence and enduring impact are profound, and The Broad is thrilled to bring our audience in Los Angeles this sweeping exhibition of his work,” said Joanne Heyler, founding director, The Broad. “It is our distinct pleasure to share a deep and varied representation of his emblematic visual language and to highlight the prolific ways he spoke through his art and activism about social issues while celebrating joy, solidarity, community and hope.”

Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody explores both his artistic practice and life, with much of the source material for the exhibition coming from his personal journals. Works presented span from the late 1970s, when he was a student at School of Visual Arts in New York, through 1988, just two years before the artist died from AIDS-related illness at the age of 31.

Haring’s participation in nuclear disarmament and anti-Apartheid movements are featured prominently in the show, as well as works taking on complex issues that remain crucial today, from environmentalism, capitalism and proliferation of new technologies to religion, sexuality and race. In the last gallery, significant works from the late 1980s will be accompanied by framed posters illustrating the artist’s activism within the HIV/AIDS crisis.

© Keith Haring Foundation

“Keith Haring’s belief that art should be accessible to all is central to the exhibition and integral to The Broad’s mission,” said Sarah Loyer, curator and exhibitions manager, The Broad. “With this exhibition, our audience will have the opportunity to dive deep into Haring’s work, both as an artist and as an innovator who completely shifted the landscape of contemporary art to this day.”

Divided into 10 galleries total, the expansive exhibition features the breadth of mediums Haring worked within, including video, sculpture, drawing, painting and graphic works, as well as representations from the artist’s enormous output of public projects, from subway drawings to his public murals.

The show includes immersive elements, such as a gallery lit by blacklight and soundtracked by playlists created by the artist himself. Additionally, the Shop at The Broad will be transformed, taking inspiration from Haring’s artistic retail space The Pop Shop, first opened in 1986 in the SoHo neighborhood of New York. Much like its original format, The Broad uses this component of the exhibition to make Haring’s line accessible to the widest possible audience.

© Keith Haring Foundation

Additionally, on view for free in The Broad’s third-floor galleries throughout the exhibition will be works by contemporaries of Haring, including Basquiat, George Condo, Jenny Holzer, Scharf and Warhol, among others.

Tickets for the general public to this exhibition go on sale April 14 at 10 a.m. (PDT).

Following its debut at The Broad, Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody will travel to Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Nov. 11 to March 17, 2024, and to Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, April 27 to Sept. 8, 2024.