Contemporary Art

The Story of Collingwood Mural by Keith Haring

Zuzanna Stańska 27 June 2025 min Read

In 1984, American artist Keith Haring visited Australia and created a mural in Collingwood, Melbourne. This is the story of the mural, at what was then the Collingwood Technical School, which is now one of only 31 known murals by Haring that are still in existence worldwide.

Keith Haring was an artist whose Pop art and graffiti-like work grew out of the New York City street culture of the 1980s. His work grew to iconic popularity from his exuberant spontaneous drawings in New York City subways – chalk outlines on blank black advertising-space backgrounds – depicting radiant babies, flying saucers, and deified dogs. After public recognition, he created larger-scale works such as colorful murals, many of them commissioned. His later work often addressed political and societal themes – especially homosexuality and AIDS – through his own unique iconography.

Mural Keith Haring
Keith Haring, Collingwood Mural, 1984, Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Canley via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA 4.0).

Now, Collingwood’s iconic Keith Haring mural is starting to show its true colors as part of Arts Victoria’s project to restore the artwork and bring back its vibrancy and vitality. The conservation project, led by renowned Italian conservator Antonio Rava, marked the start of a new chapter for the Heritage-listed, internationally recognized, and much loved public artwork.

Mural Keith Haring
Keith Haring, Crack is Wack, New York, NY, USA. Photo by gigi_nyc via Flickr.

In the 1980s, Haring drew public works murals around New York City, including his Crack is Wack mural at East 128th Street and Harlem River Drive. Although he’s best known as a New York artist, he didn’t stay solely in the city. He traveled all around the world to paint public murals in cities such as Paris, Berlin, Pisa, Sydney, Melbourne, and Rio de Janeiro. In these cities, he painted at children’s hospitals, charities, churches, and orphanages.

Get your daily dose of art

Click and follow us on Google News to stay updated all the time

Recommended

Contemporary Art

Retreating Landscape: Tracing Environmental Loss in the Work of Emma Stibbon

As climate change’s effects appear to manifest more vividly and urgently with each passing day on a global scale—from torrid fires plaguing...

Guest Author 19 June 2025

Contemporary Art

Anselm Kiefer in 5 Powerful Works

Discover Anselm Kiefer, a German artist born in 1945 at the end of World War II. His work confronts history and myth with emotional depth and bold...

Errika Gerakiti 30 June 2025

Contemporary Art

Amy Sherald: American Sublime at the Whitney Museum

Amy Sherald (b. 1973) has identified herself as “an American realist painter painting American people.” The current retrospective of her work...

Tom Anderson 5 May 2025

11. Anselm Kiefer, Sag mir wo die Blumen sind, 2024. Photo Peter Tijhuis Contemporary Art

Where Have All The Flowers Gone—Anselm Kiefer & Vincent van Gogh in Amsterdam

The time has come, and one of the most anticipated exhibitions of 2025 has opened. Anselm Kiefer—Sag mir wo die Blumend sind is the exhibition of...

Zuzanna Stańska 13 March 2025