Keith Haring

£8,500-£13,000Value
Indicator

$16,000-$25,000 Value Indicator

$14,500-$22,000 Value Indicator

¥80,000-¥120,000 Value Indicator

€10,000-€15,000 Value Indicator

$80,000-$130,000 Value Indicator

¥1,610,000-¥2,460,000 Value Indicator

$11,000-$17,000 Value Indicator

40% AAGR

AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.

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Track auction value trend

The value of Keith Haring’s Apocalypse 1 (signed) is estimated to be worth between £8,500 and £13,000. This screenprint has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 40%. This work has an impressive auction history, having been sold 13 times at auction since its entry to the market in February 2002. In the last 12 months, the average selling price was £10,079 across one total sale. In the last five years, the hammer price has ranged from £5,505 in June 2021 to £10,079 in September 2023. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 90.

Auction Date

Auction House

Artwork

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

September 2023

Sotheby's London - United Kingdom

Apocalypse 1 - Signed Print

March 2023

Sotheby's Online - United Kingdom

Apocalypse 1 - Signed Print

October 2022

Venduehuis der Notarissen - Netherlands

Apocalypse 1 - Signed Print

April 2022

Dorotheum, Vienna - Austria

Apocalypse 1 - Signed Print

March 2022

Sotheby's Online - United Kingdom

Apocalypse 1 - Signed Print

September 2021

Sotheby's Online - United Kingdom

Apocalypse 1 - Signed Print

June 2021

Germann Auctions - Switzerland

Apocalypse 1 - Signed Print

Meaning & Analysis

Apocalypse 1 is the first in a set of 10 coloured screen prints by Keith Haring that make up his compelling Apocalypse series (1988), and is a limited edition of 90. The print shows a large phallic mushroom cloud, rendered with a gestural stroke of red ink and dark free-forming lines. An amorphous mass of people surrounds and worships the exploding phallus whilst two ‘devil sperm’ float on either side.

Throughout Haring’s work, the mushroom cloud is a signifier of death and destruction alluding to the idea of the final apocalypse, as also seen in his Anti-Nuclear Rally poster (1982). Amidst the devastating effects of the AIDS crisis, Haring related the concept of nuclear holocaust to views held by the Jesus Movement on Revelation to forecast the end of the world. Haring directly correlates sexuality with death in his depiction of enormous horned sperm, a demoniacal personification of death in relation to sex, and by extension, the AIDS virus. The ‘devil sperm’ motif is repeated multiple times throughout the series.

Embedded in the print are two reproductions of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, defaced by Haring with black X’s over her eyes. The appropriation of this image integrates divergent subjects from contemporary culture and history, thus producing a jarring effect between the self-assured visual perfection of high art and rawness of Haring’s gestural marks. Haring’s visceral and uninhibited graffiti style, accentuated by the drip and splatter marks, makes clear his own bodily suffering due to AIDS and the anguish felt in relation to contemporary events.