The Valley Page 1
The Valley Page 1
Signed Print
Keith Haring
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36 x 30cm, Edition of 80, Etching
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Meaning & Analysis
This signed etching from 1989 is a limited edition of 80 from Keith Haring’s The Valley series. The first in a group of etchings made in collaboration with the beat poet William S. Burroughs, The Valley Page 1 shows a hectic line drawing of a woman giving birth and two figures standing on either side. Marking a new direction in the artist’s visual language, this print is violent in its energy and conveys themes around death and tragedy, depicting the child that is to be killed.
For this series, Burroughs copied the text 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.
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 1 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.