Keith Haring Sweatshirt

'80s Walker Sweatshirt

While digging through our archives, we stumbled across several photos of artists wearing a particularly intriguing item of clothing. This Walker-produced sweatshirt first appeared in 1983 and features a design that forgoes calculated branding in favor of an endearing, confident simplicity. The words "Walker Art Center" are plainly typed out in Garamond, centered on the shirt, and left at that.

The sweatshirt was given to visiting artists as a gift, as seen in this photo of Keith Haring standing in front of a mural he painted during his residency at the Walker Art Center in 1984. Haring's exuberant graffiti-based work had an outsized impact on the worlds of art and fashion. The artist's personal style embodied his relationship with the New York underground scene through classic streetwear: blue jeans, sneakers, and his signature geek-chic glasses.