KEITH HARING, BAYER SUITE 4, BAYER SUITE SERIES, SIGNED OFFSET LITHOGRAPH, EDITION OF 70, 1982
Commissioned in 1982 by Bayer AG on the occasion of the release of the heart medication ‘Sali-Adalat’, Bayer Suite 4 is a lithograph from Keith Haring’s Bayer Suite series. These prints are depicted in Haring’s trademark figurative style and recall 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.
Bayer Suite 4 shows an early rendering of Haring’s iconic ‘People Ladder motif’ used in his Growing series (1988), showing three figures, with one balancing on the arms of the other two to form a pyramid. The ‘People Ladder’ motif in Haring’s work has come to represent a tower of break dancers stacked on top of one another to convey a sense of joy and community in a way that reflected the artist’s love of hip hop emerging in New York City in the 1980s. Haring’s use of red action lines surrounding the figures work to create a sense of excitement in the print and also signifies the figures’ struggle to balance.
Haring’s use of lithography as a method of printing worked to maintain the crisp edges and opaque sections of colour that make up his signature style, due to lithography’s capacity to produce exceptional detail across hundreds of multiples.
Read more about Bayer Suite by Keith Haring.
ABOUT KEITH HARING
Known for his bold graphic style and playful sense of humour, Keith Haring is one of the most influential and adored artists of the 20th century.
Born in Pennsylvania, in 1958, Haring was a talented draughtsman as a child and developed his cartoonish style at the hands of his father and the work of Walt Disney and Dr Seuss. However it would take some time before he realised he could marry this kind of drawing with being a fine artist. Upon graduating from high school he enrolled in a commercial art school before realising he had little interest in pursuing a career as an illustrator or graphic designer. After dropping out of college he joined the hippie movement and hitchhiked across the country where he made anti-Nixon t-shirts to pay for food and Grateful Dead tickets. Learn more about Keith Haring.
