In the summer of 2021, the Tampere-Talo is proudly presenting in its Sorsapuisto Hall an exhibition featuring more than 100 rare posters from a museum collection that is considered to be one of the largest and most comprehensive.
Keith Haring’s style was inspired by hip-hop culture as well as graffiti and pop art and progressed from drawings in the New York City subway to pieces known all over the world.
His large murals and posters with societal themes as well as his works that opposed South Africa’s apartheid policy and his works that raised AIDS awareness are uniquely recognizable. In the 1980s, Haring also started to do more work that is commercial. His designs for Swatch wristwatches and Absolut Vodka advertising posters are still remembered, as is his collaboration with the rap group Run DMC on the marketing of the Adidas Superstar sneakers. The Pop Shop art shop he founded continues to have a presence online.
Between 1982 and 1990, Keith Haring designed around 85 posters. These included advertisements for exhibitions of his own work as well as cultural events or political issues. Haring’s drawings themselves incorporate the clear-cut lines and reduced features needed for effective posters, which had to stand out and to be understood at a glance. The uni-colored backgrounds help to make the outlined figures and drawings even clearer. The content of the advertisement is apparent in the illustration while the text being of secondary importance.
Haring’s colorful posters, with their precise pictorial language, direct messages and universal appeal still exert an incomparable fascination on us to this day.
