Keith Haring
Totem
Artwork Brief Description
Haring’s *Totem* explores universal human connection through a towering, minimalist structure. Reflecting indigenous and ancient artistic traditions, the figures on the sculpture interlock in a continuous embrace, symbolizing unity. Created near the end of Haring’s life, the work embodies themes of mortality, resilience, and the power of collective strength.
Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s.His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his work includes sexual allusions that turned into social activism by using the images to advocate for safe sex and AIDS awareness. In addition to solo gallery exhibitions, he participated in renowned national and international group shows such as documenta in Kassel, the Whitney Biennial in New York, the São Paulo Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. The Whitney Museum held a retrospective of his art in 1997.
Haring's popularity grew from his spontaneous drawings in New York City subways—chalk outlines of figures, dogs, and other stylized images on blank black advertising spaces. After gaining public recognition, he created colorful larger scale murals, many commissioned. He produced more than 50 public artworks between 1982 and 1989, many of them created voluntarily for hospitals, day care centers and schools. In 1986, he opened the Pop Shop as an extension of his work. His later work often conveyed political and societal themes—anti-crack, anti-apartheid, safe sex, homosexuality and AIDS—through his own iconography.
Haring died of AIDS-related complications on February 16, 1990.
In 2014, he was one of the inaugural honorees in the Rainbow Honor Walk in San Francisco, a walk of fame noting LGBTQ people who have "made significant contributions in their fields". In 2019, he was one of the inaugural 50 American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in
New York City's Stonewall Inn.
Keith Haring (American 1958-1990) Totem
The sheer height of Haring’s Totem sculpture makes it an immediate focal point for all who encounter it, drawing viewers in with its commanding presence. Throughout his career Haring had a fascination with symbolic language and was continually exploring how language and spirituality were expressed across a milieu of indigenous cultures and ancient civilizations. The totem therefore, as a subject, is the perfect embodiment of his interest and passion.
Traditionally, totems serve as sacred symbols representing familial, spiritual, or clan-based connections. For example, in Aboriginal Australian culture, totems are deeply spiritual, embodying animals such as kangaroos or koalas, each imbued with particular significance and serving as either protectors or as ancestors of individuals or groups. Similarly, in Canada, the totem poles of First Nations peoples often depict animals or supernatural beings, carved into towering poles that tell stories, honour ancestry, and convey a sense of communal identity. These cultural symbols are steeped in reverence and spiritual depth, with a focus on nature, ancestry, and continuity between the physical and spiritual worlds.
Interestingly, Scottish ethnologist John Ferguson McLennan, published a study on totemism in 1870, in which he posited that all of the human race had experienced a totemistic stage in its ancient past. Whether he knew of the study or not, Haring’s sculpture can be seen as a contemporary echo of this idea. By drawing on the universal concept of the totem, without any niche or specific references he taps into an ancient and shared history of symbolic representation, reinforcing McLennan’s notion that totemism is a fundamental aspect of human culture.
Rather than representing a single clan or community, Haring’s Totem speaks to universal themes of human connection, unity, and shared experience. The markings on the totem depict two figures joining arms, they are so connected that it is impossible to see where one figure starts and the other finishes. Similarly it appears as if the figure at the bottom of the sculpture is being hoisted up by the character above it, and from a distance the whole sculpture could be interpreted as one figure standing proud. Suggesting that together we are stronger. So whilst it is a sculpture deeply rooted in tradition, Haring’s totem serves as a modern day expression of his belief in the power of human connection to transcend cultural and national boundaries.
Haring's decision to cast Totem in 1989—near the end of his life as he struggled with AIDS—adds an additional layer of significance, as he often imbued his later works with themes of mortality, the human body, and the impermanence of life. In this way, Haring’s Totem offers us a vision of humanity that connects each and every one of us through our shared experiences, emotions and ultimately through the power of art.