Carmine Street Mural

In August 1987, graffiti artist Keith Haring painted a mural on the wall adjoining the Carmine Street Pool at the James J. Walker Park handball court. Eighteen feet high and 170 feet long, and inspired by the hues of the pool’s underwater shapes, it features bold stylized fish, children, and abstract forms in black, yellow, and blue. Born on May 4, 1958, in Reading and raised in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, Haring had his first one-man show at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in 1978 and moved to New York City that year to study at the School of Visual Arts. In the early 1980s, he gained notoriety through graffiti methods, drawing chalk outlines of buoyant interlocking bodies on black poster mounts in subway stations, and his images such as the radiant child and barking dog became widely recognizable. He later mounted numerous exhibitions, was represented by Tony Shafrizi, Andre Emmerich, and Leo Castelli, and supported social causes through his art, including programs that brought art to schools, children’s organizations, anti-apartheid efforts, and AIDS research. In 1986, he created the unauthorized Crack is Whack mural at a playground at the F.D.R. Drive and East 128th Street, and that same year two of his sculptures were temporarily displayed at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, later appearing in Riverside Park in 1988. Haring died of AIDS on February 16, 1990, before reaching age 32, leaving art that was both popular and critically acclaimed and inspiring a foundation that continued to support the causes he championed. His work continued to appear in public displays, including Balancing the Dog in 1991-92 and a 1997 multi-site installation of outdoor sculptures organized by the Public Art Fund with the Estate of Keith Haring, and in the spring of 1995 the Keith Haring Foundation helped preserve the Carmine Street mural for visitors to the 1930s outdoor pool.

New York, New York · United States