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Keith Haring "The Valley" Suite

April 18, 2022

Keith Haring
"The Valley" Suite
Learn more about our recently acquired pair of engravings from one of the most important and influential American contemporary artists Keith Haring.
 

About The Valley Suite

"The Valley" is a group of etchings by Keith Haring with text by William S. Burroughs. The portfolio consists of sixteen etchings drawn by the artist in April of 1989, in his New York studio. The images were proofed by Maurice Payne from 10" x 9" copper plates and printed in black ink.

The author copied the text by hand on sixteen sheets of tracing paper, which were photo-etched onto 10" x 9" copper plates and printed in red ink. The last page of the portfolio contains both text and image. There is a total of thirty-one sheets.

All the images are Copyright ©1990-2005 The Keith Haring Foundation. The text, also titled "The Valley", is a chapter from the author’s novel, The Western Lands, Copyright ©1987 William S. Burroughs. The chapter is reprinted by the arrangement with Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.

The fine art paper was created at Twinracker Handmade Paper in Brookston, Indiana. The 14"x12 1/2" sheets are white, 160 lb. 100% cotton paper. The watermark contains the initials of the artist and author. The edition was hand-printed at Wellington Studios in London, and each copy is presented in a case constructed by James Currier of Newtown, Connecticut.

Each of the intaglio images has been signed by the artist. The last page of text has been signed by the author. The edition of eighty is numbered 1/80 to 80/80, with thirteen Artist’s Proofs numbered A.P. 1/13 to A. P. 13/13, four Hors Commerce numbered H.C. 1/4 to 4/4 and one Bon a Tirer.

The edition is published by George Mulder Fine Arts
New York in February, 1990
 

The Valley Suite
Keith Haring (American, 1958-1990)
Untitled (The Valley, Page 7)  from The Valley Suite, 1989
Edition 31/80
Engraving
10 x 8 3/4 inches
Signed Dated and Numbered Lower Margin
Available for Purchase


The Valley (Page 7)
by William Burroughs

the precise limitations of needs. The fish, the grifa, the nettles, the ants, the lizards and the snakes, the moss from the edge of the cliffs, the birds, everything is precisely doled out. Those who are working on instruments take precedence and are allotted extra rations. Sometimes a Corner will spend years on an instrument, preparing a single song.

How else do we occupy our time? Everyday we must plan for the food of the day. This involves elaborate calculations: counting the fish, the number of moon-corn plants, the nettles, the moss. A miscalculation could mean starvation and the extinction of our line. We must believe that our line is precious, and that it must be maintained.

Often the word comes: "No food today." or there may be just a meager allottment of boiled nettles.
Keith Haring (American, 1958-1990)
Untitled (The Valley, Page 12),  from The Valley Suite, 1989
Edition 31/80
Engraving
10 x 8 3/4 inches
Signed Dated and Numbered Lower Margin
Available for Purchase

The Valley (Page 12)

by William Burroughs

One day it happened. We heard a roaring noise overhead and looked up to see what looked like the legendary dragonfly, hovering there in the sky. We wailed and shouted. The craft hung there and then turned and headed away. Next day it was back over the Valley with several more just like it.

Now one came down past the overhangs and landed by the stream. Immediately the Soarers rushed forward as two men got out of the craft.

"Mucho gusto… buenos dias… muchos anos aqui"

The men explained that we would all be evacuated, but that they could only take five at the moment, and five Soarers got into the craft, which lifted off.

Now another settled, but the pilots started back at the sight of advanced Corners.

"These gooks will have to be quarantined."

"They don’t go in my chopper."
 
 
When Keith Haring arrived in New York in 1978, he found an active scene of young musicians and artists, including Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat, with whom Haring became fast friends. Perhaps more importantly, he found are moving out of galleries and into public life. New York at that time was a place of new trends like the rise of hip-hop, diverse club scenes, and graffiti art. Haring embodied the city's energy, tirelessly taking his art wherever he was, whether to a gallery, his apartment, playgrounds, or department stores. In many ways, Harings use of popular imagery came from pop art's ambitions to bring popular culture into a critique of fine art. His approach to pop, however, was expansive and performative, akin to conceptual strategies of the late 1970s in its aggressive use of art as liberating social activism. After Haring contracted the AIDS virus in 1988, he focused his outpouring of activism on the AIDS crisis. Less than two years later, Haring died of an AIDS-related illness.
 

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