Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) - In This Case - Giclée...

Giclée print by Jean-Michel Basquiat (*) Reproduction of the work “In This Case” (**) a work created by Basquiat in 1983. Luxury edition on high-grade Monte Carlo watercolor paper (300 g/m2) Printing authorized by Artestar New York Copyright of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Includes Certificate of Authenticity (COA). *** LAST COPY *** Specifications: - Support dimensions: 50 x 48 cm - Stroke/mark dimensions: 40 x 38 cm - Condition: Excellent (this work has never been framed or exhibited, and has always been kept in a professional art folder, thus offered in perfect condition). The artwork will be carefully handled and packed in a reinforced flat cardboard package. The shipment will be tracked and insured, operated by top carriers (UPS / DPD / DHL / FedEx). The shipment will also include full insurance for the final value of the work with full reimbursement in case of loss or damage, at no cost to the buyer. (*) Jean-Michel Basquiat was the eldest of the three children of Matilde Andrades and Gerard Basquiat. His father was a Haitian accountant of respectable means and his mother a Puerto Rican graphic designer of great prestige in her profession. Jean-Michel grew up in a torn family environment; his parents divorced and, due to this, he had to change schools many times. He studied at a private Catholic school, later at a public school and finally, at 16, enrolled in City-As-School, a school for gifted adolescents, from which he was expelled, for rebelliousness, a year before graduating. Already in his youth he came into contact with the subculture of the big city, related to drug use and street gangs. In 1977, together with Al Díaz, he entered the world of graffiti, painting on metro cars and in the SoHo areas, a New York neighborhood where art galleries proliferate. The following year he left school one year before graduating and left home to live on the streets for two years in abandoned buildings or with friends in Lower Manhattan, surviving by selling postcards and T-shirts that he himself decorated. He continued to practice graffiti; his paintings and writings carried a lot of poetic and philosophical weight, but above all satirical. The alias of his alter ego shared with Al Díaz was SAMO (short for “Same Old Shit,” i.e., “the same old crap,” with which they signed their tags and graffiti with cryptic messages. The use of this name was decisive in his life. These murals carried inscriptions such as “SAMO saves idiots” or “SAMO ends religious brainwashing, the politics of nothingness, and false philosophy.” An article about SAMO’s street writing published in The Village Voice was the first sign that the art world was taking an interest in him. The artist had several relationships that influenced his work, one of the most significant being with artist Andy Warhol. Also, romantically, he had relationships with several women, one of the most famous today being Madonna. Lower Manhattan was the area where they lived at that time; in 1982 they began to spend more time together and go to parties in galleries. One thing that united them—she mentions in an interview: “He was a big fan of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.” In 1988 exhibitions were installed in Paris and New York, and in April of that same year he tried to leave his addictions and retreated to his home in Hawaii. He returned to New York in June, announcing he had freed himself from the addictions, but on August 12, 1988, at the age of 27, he died of a heroin overdose, becoming the most commercially successful visual artist in the history of Afro-descendant art. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn. Throughout his brief but intense artistic career he would hold more than 40 solo exhibitions and participate in around 100 group shows. Self-promotion and advertising appeal were priority factors for Basquiat, as they had previously been for Andy Warhol or Julian Schnabel. Neo-expressionism came to dominate over appropriationism, partly thanks to the economic strength that raised art prices to high levels and, especially, painting, and partly thanks to the support of gallerists and collectors. However, critics were not unanimous in their assessment, and it was common to denounce the lack of theoretical basis in neo-expressionist discourse. It was claimed that neo-expressionist art lacked any political or social meaning, was merely merchandise, and therefore subject to market fluctuations. Neo-expressionist painting was reduced to a consumer product and, as such, a creatively dismissed and vulgar fact. (**) No theme is more powerful or coveted in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work (1960-1988) than the singular skull. For this enigmatic artist, the human head was more than an obsession. As the title suggests, “In This Case” (1983), the head is a box or cage that houses a cog-filled machine of impulses and ideas. This work stands among Basquiat’s greatest achievements: a cranial abyss into which the artist has poured the contents of his visual imagination, merging centuries of stylistic influence. “In This Case” is one of the three monumental skulls Basquiat painted. The painting’s intensity and immediacy are unmatched in Basquiat’s oeuvre.

Estimate:£126.76

View all items fromCatawikiorArts & Graphics