Keith Haring’s Art to Fly on Thanskgiving Day

At a time like this when so many people are fighting over the meaning of California voter’s passage of Proposition 8 that took away the rights of gay and lesbian people to marry, it is important to look at how far we have come in the last twenty years.  When I was a teenager in the 1980’s I could not have imagined this happening.  I was a huge fan of Keith Haring and stood in line with friends to get his famous Swatch.  I also attended an AIDS fund raiser in his honor at the Palladium in NYC shortly after his death. Seeing him honored in this way feels great.

A Keith Haring sketch has been made into a huge balloon and will take flight this Thanksgiving. On of the most well known icons of the contemporary art world joins the NATIONALLY televised 82nd Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. On Thursday, November 27th, Figure with Heart by Keith Haring will debut as a 48-foot tall helium balloon in the holiday celebration. Continuing the Macy’s Parade’s Blue Sky Gallery series, Figure with Heart fulfills the late artist’s dream of having a balloon in the Macy’s Parade.

In tribute to this beloved artist, who would have turned 50 this year, Haring’s Figure with Heart is the latest entrant to the Blue Sky Gallery series. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade began the Blue Sky Gallery series in 2005 when Parade officials invited artist Tom Otterness to create a balloon version of one of his classic pieces of Humpty Dumpty. Aiming to inject contemporary art into a pop culture phenomenon, the Blue Sky Gallery series continued in 2007 with the debut of “Rabbit” by Jeff Koons.

Working in partnership with the Keith Haring Foundation, Macy’s Parade Studio reconceived one of Haring’s ink on paper drawings, Untitled (Figure with Heart), 1987, as a giant balloon. The balloon is a three-dimensional rendering of Haring’s drawing that will appear flat against the backdrop of the sky just as it might have appeared on the subway walls once favored by the artist.

“We are delighted and proud to collaborate with Macy’s in presenting a Haring balloon in the 2008 Thanksgiving Day Parade. Keith himself had long dreamed of being included in this thrilling, annual New York tradition. We believe that the Macy’s Parade’s adaptation of Haring’s artwork is very much in keeping with Keith’s own populist vision of art, and the debut of the balloon is a fitting coda to the 50th anniversary celebrations of his birth,” said Julia Gruen, Executive Director of the Keith Haring Foundation.

“Keith Haring, much like the Macy’s Parade is a pop culture phenomenon,” said Amy Kule, Producer of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “Haring’s illustrations are vivid, playful and lend themselves perfectly to being transformed into a Macy’s Parade balloon.” She adds, “We are thrilled that the debut of Figure with Heart will fulfill Keith’s dream and look forward to hosting members of the Haring family as they see it become reality on Thanksgiving Day.”

The Keith Haring Foundation maintains a complete database of the work created in his twelve year career.

About Keith Haring:
During a brief but intense career that spanned the 1980s, Haring devoted much of his time to public works that often carried social messages, producing more than 50 community artworks in cities around the world — many of which were created for charities, hospitals, orphanages and day care centers. In 1988, Haring was diagnosed with AIDS; in 1989, he established the Keith Haring Foundation, which supports organizations engaging in research and care with respect to AIDS and HIV infection, as well as organizations providing educational opportunities to underprivileged children. Haring’s work spoke about his illness while offering poignant messages of vitality and unity. With his bold lines and iconic figures, he awakened people and generated activism and awareness about AIDS worldwide. Keith Haring died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 31 on February 16, 1990, but his signature imagery and philanthropic legacy live on.