The Valley Page 9
The Valley Page 9
Signed Print
Keith Haring
£1,650-£2,450Value Indicator
$3,300-$4,850 Value Indicator
$2,950-$4,400 Value Indicator
¥15,000-¥22,000 Value Indicator
€2,000-€2,950 Value Indicator
$16,000-$24,000 Value Indicator
¥320,000-¥470,000 Value Indicator
$2,100-$3,100 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
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Medium: Etching
Edition size: 80
Year: 1989
Size: H 36cm x W 30cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2024 | Rago | United States |
Meaning & Analysis
This signed etching from 1989 is a limited edition of 80 from Keith Haring’s The Valley series. The Valley Page 9 shows a line drawing of a male torso with a knife violently thrust under his ribcage. Blood drips from the man’s wound and despite the simplicity of line, Haring’s print is charged with violence and gore.
The Valley series marked a new direction in Haring’s visual language that continued until his untimely death in 1990 at the age of 31. Alongside his Apocalypse series (1988), this series introduces stylistic shifts of more complex compositions and characters such as jesters, masks, skills and martyrs. Completed two years after Haring’s own AIDS diagnosis, The Valley Page 9 is indicative of the artist’s preoccupation with hellish narratives and death.
The ominous texts by William S. Burroughs are copied by hand on sixteen sheets of tracing paper, which were photo-etched onto copper plates and printed in red ink. The text which is also titled, The Valley, is a chapter from the author’s novel, The Western Lands from 1987. This print tells the story of a man who is killed at dawn by being stabbed, in order to avoid a more gruesome death from drinking the ‘Death Beer’ that Burroughs describes.
Keith Haring was a luminary of the 1980s downtown New York scene. His distinctive visual language pioneered one-line Pop Art drawings and he has been famed for his colourful, playful imagery. Haring's iconic energetic motifs and figures were dedicated to influencing social change, and particularly challenging stigma around the AIDS epidemic. Haring also pushed for the accessibility of art by opening Pop Shops in New York and Japan, selling a range of ephemera starting from as little as 50 cents. Haring's legacy has been cemented in the art-activism scene and is a testament to power of art to inspire social change
