''We the Youth'' is a 1987 mural by Keith Haring covering the west face of a private rowhouse in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was painted during a three-day workshop on 1, 2 and 3 September 1987. It is the only of Haring's collaborative public murals to remain in its original location. The mural was intended as a temporary placeholder until new row houses would eventually cover the wall of the mural.

Description

''We the Youth'' is two stories high and is continuous across three sections of the wall, including the front and back half of the rowhouse as well as a section of the fence of the private backyard. The mural depicts dancing figures outlined in black on a white background. The outlines of the figures are filled in with blue, yellow, red and green, sometimes with a solid color and sometimes with patterns and symbols. The northmost section of the mural, painted on a fence, contains the words "We the Youth: City Kids of Phila + NYC". Haring's initials and the date are located at the bottom right of the mural.

Historical Information

Conception

''We the Youth'' was painted to commemorate the bicentennial of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

and the title plays on the phrase "We the people" from the

preamble A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy. When applied to the opening paragraphs of a statute, it may recite historical facts pertinent to the subj ...

of the document. It was a

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

collaboration between Haring, city kids of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Brandywine Workshop The Brandywine Workshop and Archives (BWA) is a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania created to produce limited-edition screen-printed fine art. History BWA was founded by Allan L. Edmunds in 1972 as the Brandywine Graphic Works ...

in Philadelphia. Haring worked alongside a group of fourteen high school students from New York and Philadelphia as well as with the artists Clarence Wood, Gilberto Wilson, and Jose Seabourne. Mykul Tronn, one of the participating art students, said of the mural:

The picture doesn't actually say much about the Constitution, but bringing people from all different backgrounds and all different places ... to work on this mural is doing something unified, and that has to do with the constitution.

The mural was originally intended as a temporary placeholder until a new rowhouse was built on the empty lot.

Restorations

Mural Arts Philadelphia first attempted to restore the mural in 2000, though it was "little more than a light touch-up, which quickly faded". A full restoration was conducted in 2013, in partnership with the Mural Arts Restoration Program, after the property was purchased by a new owner. Of the US$40,000 needed for the restoration, US$30,000 was given by the Keith Haring Foundation. Mural Arts Philadelphia hired

Kim Alsbrooks Kim Alsbrooks is a Philadelphia-based artist. She was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1961, and lived briefly in Philadelphia during the 1990s. After living in Arizona for 10 years and in Charleston, South Carolina, she returned to Philad ...

and a small team of artists and conservators to conduct the restoration. Restoration involved cleaning the mural surface, filling in losses of paint, brightening the colors, replacing the flashing and repairing structural damage. The techniques used are expected to stabilize the mural for another 30 years. The garden in front of the mural was re-landscaped by LoFurno and is now owned by the Neighborhood Gardens Trust.

References

External links

Keith Haring Foundation , Murals Map

Interviews from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives
{{Keith Haring Paintings in Philadelphia Paintings by Keith Haring Murals in Pennsylvania 1987 paintings 1980s murals