Google Keith Haring and unlike fellow artists – Picasso, say, or Tracey Emin – you are as likely to find adverts as art. The ads suggest a sweatshirt from Abercrombie & Fitch featuring Haring’s artwork on the front for £60. A ring from Pandora with Haring’s dancing figures around the design for £125. Or a Uniqlo T-shirt, with two figures and a heart, for £14.90.
This is only a fraction of the items you can now buy displaying Haring’s artwork. The Keith Haring Foundation – the organisation responsible for his imagery since his death in 1990 – has partnered with a plethora of brands in recent months including H&M, Primark and Bershka, collaborations that follow its partnership with Uniqlo, which began in 2003. More than 30 years after his death, Haring’s crawling babies, barking dogs and dancing figures are ubiquitous.
