Keith Haring Pop Shop V Set For Sale: Facts | Meaning | Market Demand

Pop Shop V is the Keith Haring portfolio where people turn into dolphins and back again. Its four screenprints, made in 1989 in pinks, oranges and turquoises, show a swimmer diving in to join a dolphin, a rider astride one and, in places, the two trading features, with a dolphin on human legs and a person given a tail. The idea is older than the prints. In 1982 Haring’s subway drawings of dolphins and angels merged into a single hybrid of dolphin, mermaid and angel, and during his winters in Bahia, in Brazil, local fishermen who worshipped the sea goddess Yemanjá recognised it as her. The scholar Robert Farris Thompson, who interviewed him, reported that Haring meant the endless circle of humans becoming dolphins becoming humans as a challenge to Darwin, who, Haring told him in 1986, “only goes in one direction”.

The same year he made these prints, Haring painted The Last Rainforest, a picture of the interconnection of all living things prompted by the threat to South America’s rainforests, and Walking in the Rain, which refers to mutations caused by pollution and acid rain. In Pop Shop V, change is pure play. For collectors, it is the portfolio about metamorphosis and the natural world: Haring’s most buoyant line, with a serious idea underneath.

For more information or to buy Keith Haring Pop Shop V 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 Pop Shop V Set (Littmann PP. 148-149)

    Explore the complete Pop Shop V Set or individual works for sale
    • Keith Haring, Pop Shop V Complete Set (Littmann PP. 148-149), 1989
      Keith Haring, Pop Shop V Complete Set (Littmann PP. 148-149), 1989
    • Keith Haring, Pop Shop V (A) (Littmann P. 148), 1989
      Keith Haring, Pop Shop V (A) (Littmann P. 148), 1989
    • Keith Haring, Pop Shop V (B) (Littmann P. 148), 1989
      Keith Haring, Pop Shop V (B) (Littmann P. 148), 1989
    • Keith Haring, Pop Shop V (C) (Littmann P. 149), 1989
      Keith Haring, Pop Shop V (C) (Littmann P. 149), 1989
    • Keith Haring, Pop Shop V (D) (Littmann P. 149), 1989
      Keith Haring, Pop Shop V (D) (Littmann P. 149), 1989
    • Keith Haring, Pop Shop Quad V (Littmann P. 143), 1989
      Keith Haring, Pop Shop Quad V (Littmann P. 143), 1989
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    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.