Montreux Jazz Festival Poster - Keith Haring

A 1983 screenprint by Keith Haring, created as the official poster for the 17th Montreux Jazz Festival, featuring his iconic, kinetic figure style.

This screenprint is the official poster commissioned for the 17th Montreux Jazz Festival in 1983. Keith Haring, a central figure in the New York City street art scene, applied his signature visual language to this promotional work. The composition features a central, stylised figure whose torso is elongated into a spring-like coil, suggesting the kinetic energy and improvisational nature of jazz music. Haring utilised a high-contrast palette of yellow, black, and red to ensure the image remained legible from a distance, a technique consistent with his background in public art and subway drawings. The figure is surrounded by small, radiating marks, which Haring frequently used to denote movement, sound, or vibration. At the base, a blue, patterned strip provides a grounding element against the bold, flat colours of the main subject. The text at the bottom identifies the event, the year, and the dates of the festival, integrated into the overall graphic design rather than treated as a separate element. This work demonstrates Haring's ability to bridge the gap between fine art and commercial graphic design. By simplifying the human form into a series of bold, black outlines, he created an accessible visual shorthand that communicates rhythm and joy. The poster remains a recognisable example of 1980s graphic aesthetics, reflecting the intersection of contemporary music culture and the visual arts during that decade. The work is representative of Haring's broader practice, which sought to make art available to a wide audience through accessible mediums like posters, merchandise, and public murals.