Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) - Untitled (Red Warrior)...

Photolithography by Jean-Michel Basquiat (*) High-quality reproduction of the work “Untitled (Red Warrior)” created by Basquiat in 1982. Luxurious edition on heavyweight Monte Carlo watercolor paper (300 g/m2) Print authorized by Artestar New York. Copyright of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Includes Certificate of Authenticity (COA). Specifications: - Support dimensions: 40 x 40 cm - Image dimensions: 30 x 30 cm - Condition: Excellent (this work has never been framed or exhibited, and has always been kept in a professional art folder, so it is offered in perfect condition). The work will be carefully handled and packaged in a reinforced flat cardboard carton. The shipment will be tracked, using leading transport companies. 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 first of the three children of Matilde Andrades and Gerard Basquiat. His father was a Haitian accountant of respectable financial standing and his mother a Puerto Rican graphic designer of great prestige in her profession. Jean-Michel grew up in a fractured family environment, his parents divorced, and because of this he had to change schools many times. He studied at a private Catholic school, later at a public school and finally, at 16, he entered City-As-School, a school for gifted adolescents, from which he was expelled for defiance a year before graduating. As a youth he came into contact with the urban subculture of the big city, tied to drug use and street gangs. In 1977, together with Al Díaz, he entered the world of graffiti, painting on subway cars and in SoHo, the New York neighborhood where galleries proliferate. The following year he left school one year before graduating high school and ran away from 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 writings and tags carried a lot of poetic and philosophical weight, but above all satirical. The pseudonym of his shared alter ego 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 proved decisive in his life. These murals bore inscriptions such as “SAMO saves idiots” or “SAMO ends brainwashing of religion, the politics of nothing, 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. In terms of romance, he was linked with several women, one of the best known today being Madonna. Lower Manhattan was the area where they lived at that time, and in 1982 they began to spend more time together and attend parties in galleries. A detail he mentions in an interview was “I was a big fan of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.” In 1988 exhibitions were staged in Paris and New York, and in April of that year he tried to overcome his addictions and retreated to his home in Hawaii. He returned to New York in June, announcing that he had freed himself from his addictions, but on August 12, 1988, at the age of 27, he died of a heroin overdose, becoming the most successful visual artist in the history of Afro-descendant art. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Throughout his brief but intense artistic career he would mount more than 40 solo exhibitions and participate in around 100 group shows. Self-promotion and advertising appeal were priorities for Basquiat, as they had been for Andy Warhol or Julian Schnabel. Neo-expressionism came to dominate over appropriationism, partly thanks to the economic surge that elevated art prices, especially painting, to new heights, and partly thanks to the support of gallerists and collectors. However, the critics were not unanimously favorable in their appraisal, and complaints about the neo-expressionist discourse’s lack of theoretical grounding were common. It was argued that the neo-expressionist art they practiced carried no political or social meaning, was merely merchandise, and thus subject to the fluctuations of the market. Neo-expressionist painting was reduced to a consumer product and, as such, a creatively disqualified and vulgar act.

Estimate:£126.91

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