Subway as Studio: Amy Raffel on Keith Haring

Keith Haring essentially launched his career in New York City’s subway system, using the bustling space as a laboratory to refine his signature style and grow his litany of motifs. Amy Raffel, author and art historian, will chart this important period of Haring’s artistic development and will contextualize it within both Haring’s practice and the city’s history. Over a period of five years, Haring created more than 5,000 chalk drawings in subway stations. This daily ritual consolidated his early life experiences and helped shape his budding philosophy. It also dramatically affected how the art world and the broader public received his work. Join Raffel to explore the subway drawings’ foundational role in Haring’s career and how they contributed to his legacy. 

The talk is presented in connection with Keith Haring: Subway Drawings.

Amy Raffel is an independent scholar who also currently works as the Public Programs Manager at the New York Transit Museum (NYTM). She has broad expertise in art history, with a Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center and a master’s from the Institute of Fine Arts (NYU). Her research focuses on 1980s downtown New York City, with a concentration on Keith Haring. She published Art and Merchandise in Keith Haring’s Pop Shop as an independent scholar with Routledge in 2020. Prior to the NYTM, she worked as the head of content for the College Art Association (CAA) and in interpretation at the Queens Museum. She has also written and edited for several educational and art-related platforms and has taught art history at Lehman College.

This event will take place via Zoom and Facebook Live.

ADMISSION: Free
Click here to register to watch via Zoom or call 802-257-0124 x101
Watch on Facebook Live 

Banner Image: American artist Keith Haring (1958-1990) drawing on a subway platform in New York City, circa 1982. Photo by Laura Levine/Corbis via Getty Images