{"id":599700,"date":"2026-04-22T14:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/599700\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:16:15","slug":"keith-harings-ordinary-extraordinary-to-do-lists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/599700\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Haring\u2019s Ordinary, Extraordinary To-Do Lists"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Ca. 1985: Keith Haring drew colorful watch faces for Swatch in an early version of the artist-and-commerce collaborations that have become ubiquitous.
\n Photo: Courtesy of the Keith Haring Foundation Archives \u00a9 Keith Haring Foundation\n <\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to form an impression of Keith Haring as a loosey-goosey and spontaneous artist, chalking his way through the subways in throwaway bursts of inspiration, then going out to the Paradise Garage with Grace Jones. A dip into his archive shows otherwise. Each morning, he made himself a to-do list and crossed out items as he completed them as straightforwardly as any middle manager. Shopping-list tasks like \u201cchina markers\u201d or \u201corder canvas\u201d sit alongside reminders like \u201cpaint sister\u2019s baby furniture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look a little more closely, though, and between those mundane lines, the other part of the job starts to emerge: the busyness of being a famous person. \u201cCall Yoko,\u201d \u201cWrite to Whoopi,\u201d \u201cJenny Holzer 3:30.\u201d One beguiling note from 1984 reads \u201cSteven Jobs, Apple Computer, Calif.,\u201d with a Cupertino phone number. It\u2019s a vivid picture of creative-industry success, 1980s style. There\u2019s work to be done, the day-to-day management of art celebrity, logo colors to be finalized for the Pop Shop \u2014 then, afterward, you call your friend Madonna\u2019s office to secure tickets for her next show. (That was in 1985 for the Virgin Tour when it came to Radio City Music Hall. The Beastie Boys opened for her.) In these papers, here featured for the first time, you encounter fame that has endured (\u201cAndy\u201d comes up repeatedly), and fame that\u2019s more art insider (John Giorno), and fame that is evocative of the New York when downtown meant something very specific (\u201cMichael Musto interview\u201d).<\/p>\n

My Lost Art World<\/p>\n


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See All<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are about 400 of these lists preserved in the archives of the Keith Haring Foundation, most of them from the mid-to-late 1980s. A couple of them make passing reference to \u201cJulia,\u201d and that\u2019s Julia Gruen, who was Haring\u2019s studio manager from 1984 until the artist\u2019s death six years later and then ran his foundation for decades. Today, she is the chair of the foundation\u2019s board. \u201cKeith usually didn\u2019t get into the studio until noon,\u201d she explained when I recently asked her about the lists. \u201cDuring the day, he was really trying to fulfill a lot of tasks that were more business oriented. When he made a note about designing a T-shirt, it was something that he felt there was a deadline on. That is what he tried to focus on in the beginning of the day.\u201d As he knocked off those tasks, the afternoons often grew less structured and more social: \u201cHe loved to have people come visit him at the studio, so there were often people dropping by. And so it was getting a certain amount of work done that was more on the business side, admin side, and then hanging out with friends, going out to lunch, things like that. As the day progressed, he would get to a point where he wanted to \u2014 or had to \u2014 make drawings or paintings. A lot of that was done at night.\u201d The clubbing and nightlife happened after that second shift. \u201cI worked a regular day, and oftentimes I would leave at six or seven, and I would come back the next day at ten, and there would be three or four paintings on the wall that he had done the night before.\u201d From just one evening? \u201cIn the subway stations, because it was against the law, he had learned to work quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haring seems to have genuinely liked the busywork of his days. \u201cAnd unlike other artists,\u201d Gruen said, \u201che was extraordinarily organized in his studio. He was very tidy \u2014 not compulsive, but definitely tidy. And he was very disciplined about getting his work done. Not only what you see on the to-do lists but also creating.\u201d That productiveness and work ethic is likely one reason he\u2019s still so visible: Even though Haring died at 31, after a career that effectively lasted little more than a decade, he left behind an enormous volume of lively artistic output, from fine artworks to posters to Pop Shop buttons. \u201cI don\u2019t want to make him sound like a saint, because he wasn\u2019t,\u201d Gruen said, \u201cbut when he cared about something \u2014 making certain drawings, making gifts for people, making logos for all these charities that he worked with \u2014 he made a point of doing what had to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Ca. 1984: Richard Avedon photographed Brooke Shields with a Haring artwork for a poster.<\/p>\n

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\n 1984: During a party around this time at Yoko Ono\u2019s Dakota apartment, Steve Jobs showed Haring, Andy Warhol, and Kenny Scharf how to use the Macintosh he\u2019d given Sean Lennon for his 9th birthday.<\/p>\n

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\n 1985: Lippincott Sculpture in Connecticut fabricated Haring\u2019s big metal works.<\/p>\n

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\n 1987: Stephen Sprouse\u2019s fall 1988 collection included a Haring-print fabric.<\/p>\n

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\n Ca. 1987: The condom drawing and safe-sex logo were among the AIDS-activism projects he did for groups like ACT UP. Haring received his AIDS diagnosis in 1988 and died in 1990 at 31.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Ca. 1986: \u201cYan\u201d is the Dutch artist Jan Rothuizen, who used that spelling as his early graffiti tag. \u201cI had a craving for American toothpaste,\u201d he says today, and when Haring visited him in Amsterdam, \u201che thought it was funny, but he did bring it.\u201d Rothuizen remembers it as Crest rather than Aim.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Undated, 1980s: Nam June Paik, the pioneering video artist, had a Whitney retrospective in 1982; \u201cBenny\u201d was likely Benny Soto, Haring\u2019s assistant.<\/p>\n

Photo: Courtesy of the Keith Haring Foundation Archives \u00a9 Keith Haring Foundation<\/p>\n

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