'Crack Is Wack' Mural Restored In East Harlem, City Says

EAST HARLEM, NY — The restoration of Keith Haring's iconic "Crack is Wack" mural in East Harlem has been completed, city officials announced Friday.

Artists Louise Hunnicutt and William Tibbals were hired to fully restore the mural — located on a handball court on East 128th Street near the Harlem River Driver — after paint from a previous restoration in 2012 began to fade away. The new restoration was done using a more resilient type of paint that should hold up longer, city officials said.

The restoration completely refurbished the mural by undoing the work of previous restorations while repairing decades of wear-and-tear suffered by the original artwork. Hunnicutt and Tibbals made precise stencils and tracings of the mural's two-sided design before stripping away old paint and completely re-creating the original design using the stencils and photographs, city officials said.

Restoration efforts were sponsored by the Keith Haring Foundation.

"We are thrilled that ‘Crack Is Wack’ has been restored to its original glory," Keith Haring Foundation Acting Director and President Gil Vazquez said in a statement. "It is a huge source of pride for our city and a lasting reminder of Keith’s legacy and political activism. We’d like to thank the Parks Department for its stewardship of the mural and park as well as Louise Hunnicut and her team for the great work on the restoration."

Haring was arrested for vandalism after painting his mural in just one day in 1986. The Reading, Pennsylvania-born artists was fined $200 for creating the mural without a permit, but the city Parks Department eventually contracted Haring to re-paint the mural because they liked it's anti-drug message. The city also commissioned Haring to paint a mural at the Carmine Recreation Center outdoor pool in Lower Manhattan the next year.

"The ‘Crack is Wack’ mural is a testament to the enduring power of Haring’s art, which arose first in public spaces," NYC Parks Director of Art & Antiquities Jonathan Kuhn said in a statement. "We are grateful to the conservators and the Keith Haring Foundation for its continuing support to preserve this mural’s vibrancy and flair for all to see."