Displaying items by tag: keith haring foundation

Manhattan’s federal court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Elizabeth Bilinski and 19 other collectors against the Keith Haring Foundation over its refusal to authenticate 111 works.

According to the court papers, Bilinski submitted works she owned by Haring, which she and the other plaintiffs had acquired from Angelo Moreno, a friend of the artist, to the foundation in 2007. But the foundation, without giving a reason, rejected the pieces as “not authentic.” When Bilinski submitted what she considered more evidence of authenticity, including a statement from Moreno, the foundation refused to reconsider its decision. The collectors said that a forensic report indicated that the art could have been created during Haring’s lifetime, and that experts at Sotheby’s believed the works to be authentic, but the auction house refused to sell them without the foundation’s approval.

On Friday, February 21, 2014, nine art collectors filed a lawsuit against the Keith Haring Foundation after it publicly stated that roughly 80 works owned by the collectors were fakes. The collectors said that the defendant's statement harmed the value of their paintings, costing them at least $40 million. According to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan district court, the foundation refused to fully evaluate the works before writing them off as fakes.

In March 2013, the foundation filed a trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit that alleged that the works in the exhibition “Haring Miami” were fakes. The show’s promoters agreed to remove the works from the exhibit, leaving the collectors unable to sell them. The collectors said that the foundation is hoping to keep the number of authenticated Haring works low in order to increase the value of previously certified works in their possession.

Haring, an American artist and social activist, often raised political questions about HIV/AIDS and gay identity through his work. Through his activism, Haring helped the mainstream understand the AIDS crisis as a human rights issue rather than an affliction faced by a specific community.

Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies and Human Rights has launched its Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism thanks to a $400,000 grant from the Keith Haring Foundation. The Fellowship is a cross-disciplinary, annual, visiting Fellowship for a scholar, activist or artist to teach and conduct research at the Center for Curatorial Studies and the Human Rights Project at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The recipient will investigate the role of art as a catalyst for social change and present original research in an annual lecture. The findings will be published and distributed among colleges and universities worldwide.

Julia Gruen, Executive Director of the Keith Haring Foundation, said, “We are honored to establish this dynamic fellowship at Bard College in Keith Haring’s name. The artist as activist was a role integral to Haring’s own vision, identity and practice, and we are confident that a fellowship dedicated to this approach can produce illuminating opportunities for discourse and scholarship.” Haring, an American artist and social activist who succumbed to AIDS in 1990, often raised political questions about HIV/AIDS and gay identity through his work. Through his activism, Haring helped the mainstream understand the AIDS crisis as a human rights issue rather than an affliction faced by a specific community.

Bard College will begin accepting applications for the Keith Haring Fellowship in February. The first Fellow will be announced in the spring of 2014.

The Keith Haring Foundation filed a lawsuit against the organizers of the exhibition Haring Miami on Friday, March 8, 2013 in a Miami courtroom. The Foundation, which owns all of the intellectual property rights in Keith Haring’s (1958-1990) artwork as well as a considerable chunk of the artist’s oeuvre, is seeking a restraining order and an injunction against the organizers in relation to copyright and trademark infringement.

A New York-based law firm, which is representing the Haring Foundation, asked that the organizers remove all but 10 of the 175 works on display. The Foundation claims that many of the works on view as part of Haring Miami have not been properly authenticated.

During promotions, organizers announced that approximately 200 original Haring artworks would be on view, ultimately securing sponsorship from established companies such as The Miami Herald, Bombay Sapphire, and Veuve Clicquot. Organizers also enticed a number of prominent members from the Miami arts community to join the exhibition’s “Host Committee.”

After the lawsuit was filed, exhibition organizers contacted the foundation and agreed to remove all fake artworks and destroy the accompanying exhibition catalogue, which featured the unauthenticated works. Although the organizers have been compliant, the foundation still plans to move forward with the lawsuit.

Haring founded the Keith Haring Foundation in 1989 to support organizations that offer education to underprivileged children as well as organizations that offer AIDS/HIV education, prevention, and care. The foundation is also devoted to protecting the legacy of Haring, who passed away in 1990 due to AIDS-related complications.

The Whitney Museum of American Art announced yesterday that it had received a $1 million grant from the Keith Haring Foundation. The endowment is to go towards exhibitions in the Museum’s downtown Manhattan building, which will open in 2015. Designed by Renzo Piano, the building is currently under construction and will allow the Whitney to increase the size and range of its exhibitions, programs, and permanent works on view.

The Museum began working with Haring in 1983 when he was presented for the first time in a Whitney Biennial and in The Comic Art Show at the Museum’s downtown branch. Adam D. Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney said, “Keith Haring was an extraordinary artist, exuberant, humane, passionate, and unflinching in his honesty. The Whitney has been a staunch supporter of Keith’s work for thirty years and this grant is a testament to our enduring relationship with Keith, his work, and his legacy.”

A year after his death, Haring went on to appear in the 1991 Whitney Biennial and in 1992 in an Independent Study Program exhibition, The Power of the City/The City of Power. The artist’s first full retrospective, Keith Haring, took place at the Whitney in 1997. He was also featured in American Century: Art and Culture 1950–2000 in 1999 and in 2010, the museum grew its Haring collection through a gift from longtime supporter of the Whitney, Emily Fisher Landau. The Whitney now counts four of his works in its permanent collection.