City College Gets Gift of Keith Haring Apocalypse Series

CITY COLLEGE, March 04

Artist Keith Haring’s Apocalypse series, 30 vivid, compelling screen prints, with words by the poet William Burroughs below, commanded a wall in a makeshift gallery on the first floor of the North Academic Center (NAC). The work tells the story of violence, war, destruction and the AIDS epidemic that devastated a community in the 1980’s and took Haring’s life at 31 in 1990.

“The Apocalypse was produced at a very dark moment, both in Keith’s personal life and in our country. We’re in another dark moment now. We need his art to inspire hope and possibilities of change,” said Andrew Rich, the dean of the Colin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership at The City College of New York (CCNY). 

Dean Rich and the CCNY LGBQ+ Center obtained this generous gift from the Leonard-Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation and hosted the opening for a two-day showing. 

City College President Vincent Boudreau said, “We are honored to receive this extraordinary donation from the Leonard-Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation, and we look forward to making the series the subject of courses, events, and exhibitions across campus and throughout CUNY in the years to come.”

The vibrant pieces throb with a life force and spoke meaningfully to the audience of faculty, staff and members of the LBTQ+ student community. 

Speakers at the exhibit opening praised Haring, his vision and the art. 

Gil Vasquez, Keith Haring Foundation executive director, said the series is “one his most striking works.” Brad Gooch, author of Radiant, The Life and Line of Keith Haring, told the audience, “Keith’s friends called his work ‘artivism’ because of his advocacy. He always articulated what his works meant to him and how important their message was. I think this is very relevant now because you can get the feeling that you’re powerless and that someone else should do the work, but everyone has a voice inside, and that is what should inspire us.”

Although the exhibit lasted just two days, five of the prints will hang in the LGBTQ+ Center and the college plans to organize academic study around the series, which will become a part of the college art collection. Associate Professor of Art History Ellen Handy, who curates the collection, plans to co-teach a new course in the fall: “Keith Haring: Art and Activism of the 1980’s.