Keith Haring Lucky Strike Portfolio For Sale: Facts | Meaning | Market Demand

Lucky Strike is the Keith Haring portfolio that began as a cigarette commission and ended with a smoking skeleton. The commission came through Switzerland, where the prints were published in Geneva, and was arranged by the art consultant Pierre Keller, who had already brought Haring in to make posters for the 1983 Montreux Jazz Festival. Haring’s journal for 16 June 1987 has him starting the ink drawings first thing, each carrying a hand-drawn Lucky Strike logo, and finishing nine variations, five of which were chosen to be screenprinted: leaping, dancing figures in his most energetic line, arranged around the famous pack.

The tenth drawing never went to the client. Haring made a skeleton smoking a cigarette and gave it to a school to hang in Keller’s classroom, noting in his journal: “The man from Lucky Strike was not very amused, but I could care less.” Commentators read that last drawing as the activist showing through a commercial job, and see a parallel with Andy Warhol’s Ads of 1985 in bringing a household brand into the print room. For collectors, it is a brand commission with real story behind it, joyful on the surface and a little mischievous underneath, and one of the clearest records of how comfortably Haring moved between the street, the gallery and the world of advertising.

For more information or to buy Keith Haring Lucky Strike prints, contact our specialists via info@alexyellop.com. Discover more Keith Haring signed prints for sale or find out more about selling your Keith Haring prints.

  • Keith Haring Lucky Strike Portfolio (Littmann PP. 77-79)

    Explore the complete Lucky Strike portfolio or individual works for sale
    • Keith Haring, Lucky Strike Complete Portfolio (Littmann PP. 77-79), 1987
      Keith Haring, Lucky Strike Complete Portfolio (Littmann PP. 77-79), 1987
    • Keith Haring, Lucky Strike 1 (Littmann P. 77), 1987
      Keith Haring, Lucky Strike 1 (Littmann P. 77), 1987
    • Keith Haring, Lucky Strike 2 (Littmann P. 77), 1987
      Keith Haring, Lucky Strike 2 (Littmann P. 77), 1987
    • Keith Haring, Lucky Strike 3 (Littmann P. 78), 1987
      Keith Haring, Lucky Strike 3 (Littmann P. 78), 1987
    • Keith Haring, Lucky Strike 4 (Littmann P. 78), 1987
      Keith Haring, Lucky Strike 4 (Littmann P. 78), 1987
    • Keith Haring, Lucky Strike 5 (Littmann P. 79), 1987
      Keith Haring, Lucky Strike 5 (Littmann P. 79), 1987
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  • Keith Haring Radian Baby

    The Keith Haring Market in 2026

    An Overview

    Keith Haring offers collectors a compelling combination of institutional standing, enormous global recognition and a finite supply of original editions. His work belongs to major museum collections, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, while his imagery is recognised far beyond the art world. For buyers, this brings the opportunity to collect an artist whose cultural importance is established and whose appeal reaches across generations and international markets.

    That recognition is supported by substantial auction results. Haring’s record stands at $6.54 million, while all 31 subway drawings from a major private collection sold for a combined $9.2 million in 2024, demonstrating exceptional demand for this important group. His prints continue to appear consistently at international auctions, providing an established history of transactions against which collectors can assess an acquisition.

    Throughout Haring’s printed output, collectors can own the imagery that made him recognised around the world, in original editions whose supply is fixed. That balance of broad cultural appeal and limited availability is central to the attraction. A carefully chosen print offers visual impact, a place within an important artist’s career and an established auction history against which to assess its price. For collectors, this creates an exciting opportunity to build a collection with both artistic substance and the potential for long-term appreciation.