School Needs To Sell Keith Haring Mural

Saturday, 18 February 2006 11:52

SAN FRANCISCO, CA– World-renowned artist Keith Haring’s foresight and targeted acts of kindness for the community before his death are helping to save a preschool for disadvantaged students from closing its doors. Forced to find a new location due to rising property costs, the non-profit South of Market Child Care Center (SOMACC) in San Francisco is selling its 80-foot mural, painted by Haring, to fund the cost of the relocation. Both the Keith Haring Foundation and the school are looking for a benefactor to purchase the painting. The mural, appraised by Christie’s auction house at seven figures, was painted on site at the school in 1985 as a gift. Haring’s only instruction was that the mural should benefit the children of South of Market. School for Disadvantaged Students Finds New Home . . SOMACC, which serves more than 130 preschool children and their families, has resided at its Clementina Street location for more than 25 years. Its lease was terminated due to rising property values in the South of Market district, forcing the non-profit to find a new home. Although the school has broken ground on a new site, it comes with a heavy debt obligation, a huge price tag for an organization that exists on donations and state subsidies. Now SOMACC is searching for a benefactor who may be able to purchase the mural to cover the cost of the relocation. This relatively unknown 77-foot long Keith Haring mural is currently located in the school's gym and was painted on removable panels in case the school ever needed to remove and sell the artwork. Keith Haring became famous in the early 1980s for drawing hundreds of white chalk drawings on the matte black paper that covered advertising panels in many of New York City’s subway stations. In 1988, Haring was diagnosed with AIDS. Before his death in 1990 at the age of 31, the artist established the Keith Haring Foundation and mandated that his money and money generated from his images be used to help AIDS organizations and children’s programs. Haring painted numerous murals for hospitals, underprivileged children’s groups and community health organizations worldwide. Knowing that these works would become infinitely more valuable upon his death, Haring’s intent was for these paintings to be a hedge against difficult times that might occur in the future – even if that meant selling the artwork to save the organization. The virtually unseen and untitled 8-foot by 77-foot-long Haring treasure was painted on removable panels, fastened along the wall of the school’s gym. It features a vibrant and cheerful cast of animals and people painted in the artist’s signature simple lines of black and white. According to the school’s directors, Haring painted the mural freestyle with only a few buckets of paint and brush and no previously drawn-out plan. “We are grateful that Mr. Haring had the foresight to know that we may need his assistance in the future,” said Jane Weil of the board of directors of SOMACC. “The mural that stands in our gymnasium is not only a testament to Keith’s dedication to children in the Bay Area, but to his continued presence in our world. We are all very thankful for his involvement in our Center, and only hope that the mural will bring as much joy to its new owner at it did to our children for the last 20 years.” In a journal entry dated October 14, 1978, Haring wrote, "The public has a right to art... The public needs art, and it is the responsibility of a 'self-proclaimed artist' to realize the public needs art, and not to make bourgeois art for the few and ignore the masses... I am interested in making art to be experienced and explored by as many individuals as possible with as many different individual ideas about the given piece with no final meaning attached. The viewer creates the reality, the meaning, the conception of the piece. I am merely a middleman trying to bring ideas together."

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