Angel, from Icons (Littmann P. 171) by Keith Haring presents a radiant celestial figure rendered in luminous yellow against a pale grey background.

The work captures a winged being crowned with a halo of radiating lines, its arms outstretched in a gesture of benediction or flight, while thick black contours amplify the figure's spiritual presence through Haring's signature bold graphic approach.

Created in 1990 during the final months before Haring's death from AIDS-related complications, Angel represents both personal meditation and universal symbol within the broader Icons series. The portfolio emerged as Haring confronted his mortality, drawing upon religious and mythological imagery that had appeared sporadically throughout his career but gained new urgency in this period of reflection.

The work demonstrates Haring's mastery of simplified form and symbolic communication. The angel's wings spread horizontally across the picture plane, their feathered edges described through rhythmic black dashes that create optical vibration against the saturated yellow. The figure's dancing pose, with bent knees and animated stance, transforms traditional angelic iconography through Haring's use of movement and joy. The halo, rendered as simple radiating lines rather than a conventional ring, suggests divine energy emanating outward. Yellow dominates the palette, a colour Haring associated with optimism and spiritual light throughout his practice.

Against the neutral grey background, the chromatic intensity becomes almost aggressive in its brightness, demanding attention whilst conveying hope. The thick black outline, applied through silkscreen printing, maintains the graphic clarity that made Haring's work direct from his early subway drawings through to these late prints.

The Icons series represents Haring's final major print project, completed just months before his death in February 1990. Angel stands among the most direct of these works, its religious symbolism unencumbered by the complex narratives that characterised some of Haring's earlier works. The piece functions both as personal statement and public icon, its simplified forms accessible to viewers whilst carrying profound meaning for an artist facing his own mortality.

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