Keith Haring: When Capitalist Consumerism Fails an Artist

Amazing work as always! I have always been drawn to Haring’s art, and learning what he truly stood for makes me mourn how he was taken from this world way too soon. I hope I can travel abroad and visit all of his exhibits someday. <3

If you want a Keith Haring product: make it yourself. Seriously, Keith would most certainly have way more peace with that than buying his design from a fashion brand that uses childlabour…

Kieth:wants to actively give away art ,tries to make it affordable for everyone and wants people to have ownership of art tools adobe:nice aesthetic their I think imma yoink it and ignore everything else

I feel so bad, I grew up thinking Harring's art was the product of a fashion brand and wrote it off as ugly. It's so sad to see the legacy of a queer artist so erased :(

Capitalist ownership of human creativity inevitably leads to the stifling of expression in favor of pursuing the profit motive.

It’s insane how companies somehow get the final say in what Haring’s life and work meant simply by not including who he was and what he stood for in their collaborations. That’s being irresponsible with his life’s work and identity just for a cash grab. Thankful for this video that actually addresses Haring’s life and messages.

"Don’t think it is fair to force a brand to tell a story that doesn’t make sense to them." He’s right. But if Keith’s story doesn’t make sense to them they shouldn’t be allowed to use his art. It’s that simple.

its crazy because this artist was apart of my life and my family's life without us even realizing it. his art was everywhere including my school art rooms and music rooms. learning about him is amazing.

I seen his work around and know his face but never knew his story. Thank you, now I get the meaning.

Really disheartening to see an artist work fall in the wrong hands and become quite the opposite of what it ment to them and what they wanted to express with their art...

Now, I just want to download one of his "not-so-safe" drawings and print it on a shirt for cheap. Feels like a better option than buying from a clothing store

I had NO idea what kind of person stood behind the art. Such a well-made video, thank you.

It's so important to spread the word about what Keith Haring actually believed in. This was an amazing video. Fun fact: Keith Haring did Grace Jones's body paint in the horror-comedy Vamp.

I legit thought with the recent surge of products using Keith Haring's art that he was an artist who was still alive doing collabs with these brands. This is actually so ridiculous for so many reasons. They are not honouring his legacy. There is no need for them or positive outcome for them to use his art in order to create profits. There are plenty of artists that exist in the world who would possibly benefit monetarily from collabs like these since they are focused on profit. These companies could actually help contribute positively to some artist's life. Instead they are exploiting Keith's creations and completely disregarding his legacy and character to do the exact thing he tried to stand against

Thank you for telling his story and highlighting just how incredibly wrong it is for companies to abuse his art for profit without any mention of what it stands for.

I never cared for his art, personally. But his messages and activism, not to mention his style have taken on a life despite his untimely death.

Didn't expect to cry this morning. But I really appreciate you doing this

One of the most impactful works he has done in my life was the work he did for PBS and Sesame Street. I remember his animations even as a someone in her mid thirties.

I've seen his art once before but was unaware of all the history behind his work and himself. Thank you for teaching me about such a wonderful artisit that exisited before my time.

The fact that his alignment of the lgbtq community was completely erased by my art techer who was apparently such a big fan of his is deeply upsetting tbh. Especially as an lgbtq kid who was confused until the age of 20.