Name: Bayer Suite 1
Brand: Keith Haring
Rating: 5 (234 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Keith Haring’s signed lithograph, Bayer Suite 1, created in 1982, is estimated to be worth between £1,000 and £1,450. This work has shown a consistent value growth and has an auction history of one sale on 26th June 2024. Over the past 12 months, the average selling price was £1,000, with the total sales volume being 1. In the last five years, the hammer price has shown an average annual growth rate of -45%. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 70.

Auction Date

Auction House

Location

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

June 2024

Bonhams New Bond Street

United Kingdom

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.