Name: The Valley Page 7
Brand: Keith Haring
Rating: 5 (231 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Keith Haring’s The Valley Page 7 (signed) is estimated to be worth between £2,250 and £3,400. This etching print, created in 1989, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 5%. This work is somewhat rare, having been sold once at auction since its entry to the market in July 2021. Over the past five years, the hammer price has ranged from £1,700 in August 2021 to £2,100 in January 2022. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 80.

Auction Date

Auction House

Location

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

October 2023

Bonhams New York

United States

July 2021

Forum Auctions London

United Kingdom

Meaning & Analysis

This signed etching from 1989 is a limited edition of 80 from Keith Haring’s The Valley series. Showing a line drawing of a man counting fish, The Valley Page 7 is indicative of Haring’s stylistic and thematic shifts in the latter part of his career.

The Valley series was born from a collaboration with the Beat Era poet and novelist William S. Burroughs, whose text-based ‘cut-up’ method formed the basis of Haring’s pictographic style. In each print the image mimics the story told in the text displayed.

The ominous texts by 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 preparing, planning and counting food in a society where provisions are scarce, adhering to the nightmarish theme of the series.

Much like Haring’s Apocalypse series (1988), this series introduces stylistic and thematic shifts in the artist’s style, depicting characters and narratives that are indicative of the artist’s preoccupation with the end of life. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, The Valley Page 7 is representative of the way in which Haring’s work and activism became intensely embroiled in his personal life and the socio-political context of the AIDS epidemic in New York City.