Location:
3100 N. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60657
Located Within:
Lincoln (Abraham) Park
Installation Duration:
Permanent Collection of the Chicago Park District
Artist:
Keith Haring
Medium:
Painted Aluminum on metal sub-frame
Year Created:
2019
Installed:
2019
Owner:
Chicago Park District
Features:
Outdoor, Sculpture
Description
Self-Portrait is a 30-foot-high sculpture by iconic HIV/AIDS activist and artist, the late Keith Haring. Bold, bright green and nearly three stories high, Self-Portrait is the largest iteration of this popular sculpture that has ever been fabricated, and the city’s first public monument to memorialize the early days of Chicago’s HIV epidemic and to honor those who continue to fight against the disease today. The sculpture is located within AIDS Garden Chicago, a 2.5-acre public lakefront garden being developed along Lake Michigan just south of Belmont Harbor, at the original location of the ‘Belmont Rocks,’ a space where the local gay community gathered between the 1960s and 1990s.
Self-Portrait is provided to AIDS Garden Chicago through a generous gift from the Keith Haring Foundation with personal financial support from Alderman Tom Tunney that was matched by the Alphawood Foundation Chicago. Rosenthal Fine Art, which facilitated the conversation with the Haring Foundation, was established here in 1986 and has most recently been dedicated to making art more accessible to the public through partnerships with private developers and city agencies.
Keith Haring (1958-1990) generously contributed his talents and resources to numerous causes. In 1989, Haring established a foundation to ensure that his philanthropic legacy would continue indefinitely.
The Keith Haring Foundation supports arts and educational institutions by funding exhibitions, educational programs, and publications that serve to contextualize and illuminate the artist’s work and philosophy.
AIDS Garden Chicago is a community collaboration project in partnership with the Chicago Park District and Chicago Parks Foundation.
To learn more about the garden and sculpture visit: www.aidsgardenchicago.org