"Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic"
About this Quote
“Brings together man and the world” sounds lofty until you place it in Haring’s actual practice: fast, public, illegitimate, made in the flow of the city. His chalk drawings on empty advertising panels weren’t just images; they were interruptions in the commercial environment, moments where the individual hand reasserted itself inside a machine designed to talk at you. The subtext is democratic: drawing isn’t owned by museums or gatekeepers. It’s an immediate language, legible on the street, with the speed of thought.
“Magic” is doing heavy work here, but it’s not mystical fluff. It’s the strange fact that a simple mark can summon a body, a feeling, a threat, a joke - and make strangers recognize it instantly. Coming from an artist shaped by graffiti, the AIDS crisis, and late-Cold-War paranoia, that “magic” also carries urgency: when institutions fail to protect people, the most basic human signal - a drawn line - can still connect, warn, mourn, and insist on presence.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Haring, Keith. (2026, January 15). Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/drawing-is-still-basically-the-same-as-it-has-136392/
Chicago Style
Haring, Keith. "Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/drawing-is-still-basically-the-same-as-it-has-136392/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/drawing-is-still-basically-the-same-as-it-has-136392/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.






