The Mural That Outlived Its Maker — and the Condition He Set for Taking It Down

The mural Keith Haring painted at ArtCenter College of Design was never meant to last 36 years. It was meant to come down when AIDS was eradicated.

Both are still here.

In late November 1989, Haring — already diagnosed with AIDS — climbed scaffolding at ArtCenter’s Hillside Campus and spent two days painting freehand on a wood panel across from the Fogg Library entrance. He used no pencil sketches. He played funk from a boombox. He agreed to do the work on one condition, according to ArtCenter: the mural would remain in place until AIDS had been eradicated.

Ten weeks later, Haring was dead. He died on February 16, 1990, of AIDS-related complications. He was 31.

The untitled work — bold, colorful, abstract, in a graphic style that became one of the most widely recognized visual languages of the 20th century — is Haring’s only public artwork in Los Angeles and the last mural he painted in the city, according to ArtCenter. It hangs today where Haring intended it, on a busy stretch of campus at 1700 Lida Street in Pasadena, available to view from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. when classes are in session.

In June 2026, ArtCenter highlighted the mural on its Facebook page for Pride Month, noting that Haring had asked the work to remain on display until AIDS is eradicated. “Thirty-six years later, it’s still here,” the college wrote.

Haring painted the mural to mark the second annual World AIDS Day — then called AIDS Awareness Day — and the first-ever Day Without Art, a national day of action and mourning organized by Visual AIDS on December 1, 1989. ArtCenter described the mural as a “permanent memorial to members of the art community who have died of AIDS and as a symbol of hope and compassion,” according to the college’s website.

The condition Haring attached to the work has become its most enduring feature. In 2024, approximately 40.8 million people were living with HIV worldwide, and approximately 630,000 died of AIDS-related illnesses that year, according to UNAIDS. New infections have declined 40 percent since 2010, but the disease has not been eradicated. The mural stays.

“I wanted to make a mural that would last, be something that could be looked at beyond the time when AIDS is an issue,” Haring told students and faculty in ArtCenter’s Ahmanson Auditorium after completing the work in 1989, according to ArtCenter. “This mural should be here for a long time, and AIDS shouldn’t be.”

Hadi Salehi, a 1991 ArtCenter Photography alumnus and former faculty member, documented the mural’s creation with a Super 8 camera. He spent two days filming and photographing Haring as he worked.

“He told me that he was in tremendous pain, and that the pain was unbearable at times,” Salehi recalled in an account published by ArtCenter. “But when he worked he said it seemed like there was no pain. He said that the passion of creating was greater than the pain of his illness.”

Aaron Smith, now ArtCenter’s Illustration Associate Chair, was a student watching Haring paint during finals week of his last term at the college in November 1989.

“I always tell my students to pay attention, because [sometimes] you don’t know what you’re witnessing, and you don’t know how it’s going to affect you later on,” Smith said in a panel discussion organized by ArtCenter.

Haring was born on May 4, 1958, in Reading, Pennsylvania. He moved to New York City in 1978 and rose to fame through chalk drawings in the city’s subway system, becoming known for bold-lined, vivid imagery — radiant babies, dancing figures, barking dogs — that bridged the gap between street art, fine art, and social activism. He was openly gay and used his art to advocate for safe sex and AIDS awareness. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988.

In 1989, the same year he painted the ArtCenter mural, Haring established the Keith Haring Foundation to fund AIDS organizations and children’s programs. The foundation continues that work, according to its website.

Haring produced more than 50 public artworks between 1982 and 1989 in cities around the world, according to the Keith Haring Foundation. His work has been featured in more than 100 solo and group exhibitions.

ArtCenter’s archives recovered Salehi’s Super 8 footage of the mural’s creation in late 2014. In 2023, during Pride Month, ArtCenter presented “A Public Thing,” a panel discussion and short film about the mural, in partnership with The Broad and the Keith Haring Foundation. The panel, moderated by ArtCenter President Karen Hofmann, included Haring’s sister, historian Kristen Haring; Keith Haring Foundation Executive Director Gil Vazquez; and Smith.

“For me, Keith is still alive because his works still feel fresh and creative,” Salehi said in a statement published by ArtCenter. “The impact of his works still grows.”

ArtCenter College of Design, founded in 1930, is located in Pasadena. The Hillside Campus building, designed by Craig Ellwood Associates and opened in 1976, spans an arroyo in the San Rafael Hills above the Rose Bowl. The mural is accessible during campus hours. Contact: exhibitions@artcenter.edu.