Birthday Card: Herbert Bayer, 1943

Bayer’s card, typical of his graphic style, combines several media in a single image. A huge fingerprint hovers beside an image of Bayer as a little boy holding a walking stick, with painted clouds drifting across a red sky. Austrian-born Bayer was an active Alpine hiker throughout his life, and his love for the mountainous landscape of his homeland led him to settle in Aspen in 1946. The fingerprint is Bayer’s personal stamp on the card for his dear friend.