Name: Bayer Suite 1
Brand: Keith Haring
Rating: 4.9 (225 reviews)

Meaning & Analysis

This signed offset lithograph from 1982 is a limited edition of 70 from Keith Haring’s Bayer Suite series. Bayer Suite 1 shows an image of two genderless figures with their arms outstretched, holding up a large heart in the centre of the frame. This lithograph is an early example of the artist’s trademark figurative style. The series was commissioned by Bayer AG on the occasion of the release of the heart medication ‘Sali-Adalat’ and consists of six different motifs on the theme of movement and the heart.

Bayer Suite 1 shows an image of two genderless figures with their arms outstretched, holding up a large heart in the centre of the frame. Graphic lines radiate from the heart to give the effect that it is pulsating, and action lines are shown at the figures’ feet making them look as though they are dancing with joy. This celebratory image bursts with energy and vigour, a sensibility that makes Haring’s work so appealing and unique.

Across the series, Haring limits his colour palette to black, red and white, producing a highly simplified and stylised set of works. The simplistic form and positive visual language of Bayer Suite 1 recalls the artist’s early subway drawings, where he spent his days drawing in white chalk on the empty advertising panels of the New York subway system.