Keith Haring Untitled (Two Figures with Red Heart)

Untitled is a screenprint created by the artist in 1987. It is also known as Be Mine. Although small in dimensions, the work tackles one of the biggest themes throughout art – love – stylised in Haring’s idiosyncratic visual alphabet. Here he uses a simple and universal symbol and makes it his own, a testament to Haring's ability to innovate even the most ubiquitous images.

At the centre of an otherwise monochromatic picture, a large red heart beams upon two figures stood next to each other as if it were the sun. With very little scenery or signifiers, Haring’s picture has a unique vividness in its simple graphic style. Hearts usually connote romantic love: but in this scene, and in Haring’s oeuvre generally, they stand for so much more. As the figures are sexless and appear to be platonic, the affection in this work is one humanity and friendship for fellow citizens. In countless other works, hearts also stand for positivity and resistance in the face of oppression: for example, in a series of Untitled drawings from 1989, two figures are tied with rope to a tree with a heart above them. Thus Haring’s heart, like so many of his symbols, became a motif that constantly evolved throughout his career: for critic Ulrike Gehring, Haring’s ‘pictorial signs are modules which change meaning depending on their configuration’.  

Hearts are one of the most familiar symbols, known across cultures and to children and adults alike. A testament to Haring’s unique graphic style, he was able to create his own definition and thus the ‘Haring heart’ is artistically recognisable in its own right.