Keith Haring (b.1958, Reading, PA) conceived Acrobats (1986) one year after the first exhibition of his freestanding steel pieces at Leo Castelli Gallery in 1985. Depicting two figures balanced in a remarkable gravity-defying pose, Acrobats is a work of incredible simplicity and vitality. Haring, a quintessentially urban artist, always sought to engage the public directly, from his earliest chalk drawings in New York subway stations to his final mural in a maternity hospital in Monte Carlo. In its temporary home in Battery Park City, Acrobats continues Haring’s enduring vision of inserting art into the environs of our everyday lives. Text provided by Public Art Fund.
