Pisa remembers Keith Haring with world's biggest puzzle

(ANSA) - Pisa, December 7 - Starting Tuesday and until December 24 the world's biggest commercial puzzle will be put together here in this Tuscan city to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of American artist Keith Haring. Pisa was the last city where Haring completed a work and the 32,256-piece puzzle will be assembled in front of his 'Tuttomondo' mural, on the rear wall of the convent of the Church of Sant'Antonio. The 5.44m by 1,92m puzzle, named 'Keith Haring - Double Retro', reproduces several of his well-known figures and was made by the Ravensburger company.
Although he rarely entitled his works, Haring called his Pisan mural 'Tuttomondo' (The Whole World) because in one word it summed up his constant pursuit of interaction with the public. This is represented in the mural by a yellow figure which is walking or running in the centre of the work at street level. Haring completed the work over a period of one week in June 1989 and tried to involve as many city residents as possible in its creation. While he drew the 30 figures in the 180 square-meter mural, each representing a different aspect of peace in the world, he then invited others to join him in coloring them in. Born in Pennsylvania, Haring found his inspiration from the graffiti art in New York City, where he gained attention with his street art and subway chalk drawings . He soon shot to fame with his distinctive cartoon-like figures, often with heads of animals or objects, which stood out for their colour, simplicity and energy. Haring, who was a declared gay, died of an Aids-related illness in 1990 at the age of 31. Before his death, he set up the Keith Haring Foundation to raise funds for AIDS organizations and children's charities through exhibitions, publications and the licensing of his images. Aside from the mural in Pisa, Haring also did a graffiti drawing on the side of Rome's Palazzo delle Esposizioni gallery in 1982, which was erased when the building was cleaned. He also created a six-by-two-meter graffiti work on the bridge where Rome's A line metro passes over the Tiber River, but this was cleaned off in 2001. In Milan, he painted the interior of a Fiorucci boutique, but this was later removed and sold at an auction in Paris.