Fans of Keith Haringâs work can see his graffiti images of dancing figures, barking dogs, glowing infants, and flying saucers in museums and cities across America. But according to NPR , one of the late American artist's lesser-known public worksâa stairwell mural inside a former New York City conventâis now in danger.
Haring painted the mural inside the Grace House, a home for Catholic teenagers on Manhattanâs Upper West Side, between 1983 and 1984. The artist was scouting locations for a film, and Grace House asked him to decorate the stairwell. By then, Haring was already famous, but he obliged and covered the walls with his signature radiant babies, dancers, and dogs. The entire project was completed so quickly that viewers can still see paint drips on the walls.
The lost Keith Haring mural in Manhattan ( @stavziv - @newsweek ) https://t.co/S1c4G8aNTY
Keith Haring died from AIDS-related complications in 1990âsix or so years after painting the Grace House muralâat the age of 31. Today, itâs one of less than 30 worldwide public works created by Haring. Soon, this number might drop even lower: A local church, the Church of the Ascension, owns Grace Houseâand thanks to financial difficulties, its officials want to sell it.
Most of Grace Houseâs tenants have moved out, but two tenants named Robert Savina and Yana Sabeva have hired a local law non-profit to help them fight eviction. They want to stay in their homesâand they also worry about the muralâs future.
"My fear, and I think other people's fear, is that if they sell the building that anybody could go in and tear the building down," Savina told NPR. "There didn't seem to be ... any forethought in: How do we preserve the mural?"
For now, the workâs future is in limbo: The Church hasnât sold Grace House yet, but tenants say that realtors are showing it to prospective buyers.
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