1981
1981 Everlasting Modernity of Aeschylus
2020 SOLD for $ 85M including premium
Francis Bacon has long sought his way to illustrate human weaknesses and suffering. The major influence on his art is the Oresteia by Aeschylus. When he discovers this trilogy, he stops destroying his own productions. It is certainly no coincidence that his seminal work, made in 1944 at the age of 35, is a triptych.
This painting is titled Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. As a challenge against Christianity, he does not display the Passion but pictures of the Furies who forever pursue their vengeance on the guilty Orestes.
In 1962 Bacon begins using a new format for his completed works : the triptych of oils on canvas sized 198 x 148 cm for each element. He will make 28 of them. Aeschylus continues to haunt him. A triptych painted in 1976 featuring in the central panel Prometheus devoured by the eagle in the presence of the Furies was sold for $ 86M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008.
On June 29 in New York, Sotheby's sells Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, painted in 1981, lot 105 estimated $ 60M. Please watch the First Look video and the Expert Voices video shared by the auction house.
Unlike the Prometheus in the example above, the artist avoids any narrative aspect in his Oresteia to better focus on the sensations. The main figure of each of the three elements is made up of contorted nudity fragments. Homosexual, sado-masochist and atheist, Francis Bacon proclaims his difference by taking Aeschylus as a reference for interpreting the human passions and the impossibility of escaping the Furies of destiny.
This painting is titled Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. As a challenge against Christianity, he does not display the Passion but pictures of the Furies who forever pursue their vengeance on the guilty Orestes.
In 1962 Bacon begins using a new format for his completed works : the triptych of oils on canvas sized 198 x 148 cm for each element. He will make 28 of them. Aeschylus continues to haunt him. A triptych painted in 1976 featuring in the central panel Prometheus devoured by the eagle in the presence of the Furies was sold for $ 86M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008.
On June 29 in New York, Sotheby's sells Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, painted in 1981, lot 105 estimated $ 60M. Please watch the First Look video and the Expert Voices video shared by the auction house.
Unlike the Prometheus in the example above, the artist avoids any narrative aspect in his Oresteia to better focus on the sensations. The main figure of each of the three elements is made up of contorted nudity fragments. Homosexual, sado-masochist and atheist, Francis Bacon proclaims his difference by taking Aeschylus as a reference for interpreting the human passions and the impossibility of escaping the Furies of destiny.
1981 The Modern Bucolics
2015 SOLD for $ 37M including premium
In early 1981, success is immediate for Jean-Michel Basquiat. His fame soon transcends borders and Emilio Mazzoli invites him for an exhibition in Modena in May and June.
Jean-Michel painted during the trip. His mixed techniques on canvas 221 x 401 cm starring in life size a character and a cow is even his largest artwork from that seminal year as if he already desired to escape Annina Nosei's basement.
This work entitled The field next to the other road sounds like a holiday souvenir for the young artist who discovers Italy. On the left, it is typical of the already favorite themes of Jean-Michel through that thorn-crowned man with visible skeleton and full sex.
The cow on the right looks like a child's drawing with her innocent gaze and big udder. The line drawing is filled with colors but the artist avoids as always the classical artistic language: the color of one of the legs of the beast is outside the line drawing.
Made in a country with an incomparable artistic past, this painting is a fresco on the theme of life (milk) and death (bones) by a very young man eager for thrills and glory. The field is estimated $ 25M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 55B.
Jean-Michel painted during the trip. His mixed techniques on canvas 221 x 401 cm starring in life size a character and a cow is even his largest artwork from that seminal year as if he already desired to escape Annina Nosei's basement.
This work entitled The field next to the other road sounds like a holiday souvenir for the young artist who discovers Italy. On the left, it is typical of the already favorite themes of Jean-Michel through that thorn-crowned man with visible skeleton and full sex.
The cow on the right looks like a child's drawing with her innocent gaze and big udder. The line drawing is filled with colors but the artist avoids as always the classical artistic language: the color of one of the legs of the beast is outside the line drawing.
Made in a country with an incomparable artistic past, this painting is a fresco on the theme of life (milk) and death (bones) by a very young man eager for thrills and glory. The field is estimated $ 25M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 55B.
1981 La Hara by Basquiat
2017 SOLD for $ 35M by Christie's
Suddenly at ease in 1981 thanks to the support of Annina Nosei, Jean-Michel Basquiat views his future as one of the greatest African-American heroes.
Real life is not so simple. Segregation remains latent in the high society and street artists considered as mere vandals are mercilessly pursued by the police. We cannot blame him for this fear of the cops : two years later one of his friends will be killed in a muscled police intervention.
Whether white or black the policeman is an enemy of his freedom. Jean-Michel makes some caricature portrait paintings of these brutes who maintain the public order. By defiance and by support of his friends who remain in the street, he adds on the back wall some inscriptions appearing as hastily written. In a later phase of his career these often incomprehensible messages will become preponderant.
A 182 x 121 cm panel adorned with the remarkable IRONY OFNEGROPLCEMN tag was sold for £ 8.2M by Phillips de Pury on June 28, 2012.
On May 17, 2017, Christie's sold for $ 35M from a lower estimate of $ 22M a panel of same size painted with acrylic and oilstick which is one of the rare examples in the art of Jean-Michel where the character is a white man, lot 55 B.
This policeman is a massive man with broad shoulders whose function is recognizable in his uniform and kepi. The mouth is open in a cry and the gaze is bloody. On the wall the stylized drawing of a gaunt eagle is a mocking symbol of the federal authority. Below the eagle the tag LA HARA appears four times as a challenge inspired from 'La jara' meaning the cops in Puerto-Rican slang.
Real life is not so simple. Segregation remains latent in the high society and street artists considered as mere vandals are mercilessly pursued by the police. We cannot blame him for this fear of the cops : two years later one of his friends will be killed in a muscled police intervention.
Whether white or black the policeman is an enemy of his freedom. Jean-Michel makes some caricature portrait paintings of these brutes who maintain the public order. By defiance and by support of his friends who remain in the street, he adds on the back wall some inscriptions appearing as hastily written. In a later phase of his career these often incomprehensible messages will become preponderant.
A 182 x 121 cm panel adorned with the remarkable IRONY OFNEGROPLCEMN tag was sold for £ 8.2M by Phillips de Pury on June 28, 2012.
On May 17, 2017, Christie's sold for $ 35M from a lower estimate of $ 22M a panel of same size painted with acrylic and oilstick which is one of the rare examples in the art of Jean-Michel where the character is a white man, lot 55 B.
This policeman is a massive man with broad shoulders whose function is recognizable in his uniform and kepi. The mouth is open in a cry and the gaze is bloody. On the wall the stylized drawing of a gaunt eagle is a mocking symbol of the federal authority. Below the eagle the tag LA HARA appears four times as a challenge inspired from 'La jara' meaning the cops in Puerto-Rican slang.
1981 The Warrior from the Street
2014 SOLD 35 M$ including premium
At the beginning of 1981, the enigmatic SAMO, a young artist from the streets of New York, participated in an exhibition in Queens. This will be the year of his fame under his real name, Jean-Michel Basquiat.
On May 13 in New York, Christie's sells one of his earliest paintings on canvas, 173 x 262 cm, lot 36 in the catalog, estimated $ 20M. This work includes everything that we may imagine from the street art by SAMO : large size, strident colors, war symbols, fierce humor. The mixing of techniques has already reached its top level of efficiency : acrylic, oil stick, metallic spray enamel.
The warrior is crowned and sexual, with organs visible by transparency. In attack position, he is by one hand Jupiter brandishing the lightning and by the other hand a rebel crusader wielding the sword. The claws of the feet reinforce the doubts about his belonging to mankind.
Unlike other paintings of the same period, this one is sprinkled with wild and incomprehensible words which are martial onomatopoeia (TAR TAR TAR ) or lyrical tunes (OEOEE). Later, such strange expressions shall almost always enhance the social revolt of his characters.
This painting has certainly been made in the studio arranged for Jean-Michel in the basement of Annina Nosei, who sold the artwork in the following year.
POST SALE COMMENT
This seminal Basquiat was sold for $ 35M including premium.
On May 13 in New York, Christie's sells one of his earliest paintings on canvas, 173 x 262 cm, lot 36 in the catalog, estimated $ 20M. This work includes everything that we may imagine from the street art by SAMO : large size, strident colors, war symbols, fierce humor. The mixing of techniques has already reached its top level of efficiency : acrylic, oil stick, metallic spray enamel.
The warrior is crowned and sexual, with organs visible by transparency. In attack position, he is by one hand Jupiter brandishing the lightning and by the other hand a rebel crusader wielding the sword. The claws of the feet reinforce the doubts about his belonging to mankind.
Unlike other paintings of the same period, this one is sprinkled with wild and incomprehensible words which are martial onomatopoeia (TAR TAR TAR ) or lyrical tunes (OEOEE). Later, such strange expressions shall almost always enhance the social revolt of his characters.
This painting has certainly been made in the studio arranged for Jean-Michel in the basement of Annina Nosei, who sold the artwork in the following year.
POST SALE COMMENT
This seminal Basquiat was sold for $ 35M including premium.
1981 Artistic Miracle in a Basement
2012 SOLD 26.4 M$ including premium
In 1981, Annina Nosei offered to a very young street artist a place to work in the basement of her gallery in New York. The result certainly exceeded the intention. Who could really predict that the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat would be within a few months the first strong representation of angers and hopes of the abandoned of the society?
The mystery of the instant makeover of Jean-Michel at Nosei does not stay in the grammar of his figuration, whose originality was already recognizable in his graffiti. It is the amazing technical mastery that he suddenly demonstrated for large formats which he had never practiced.
Jean-Michel was already mastering his drawing which he applied in increasingly detailed layers. And he also mastered color, executed in oilstick, acrylic and spray enamel applied with a spontaneity that would have pleased the abstract expressionists.
We do not know the exact day of the works made by Basquiat in Nosei basement but the canvas, 198 x 173 cm, for sale by Christie's in New York on November 14, is known as one of the first.
The fisherman is standing with his black body revealing the skeleton. He wears a crown of thorns and a halo of the same nature. The huge fish is hanging from the line. Basquiat is a threat to the well-meaning art of his time, and the fish could be a voodoo poison taken out of water by a new ambiguous god.
The estimate is not published, but according to the earliest releases this work is expected in the region of $ 20M, lot 42.
POST SALE COMMENT
Christie's had convinced us that this painting is a key work of early Basquiat art: $ 26.4 million including premium.
The mystery of the instant makeover of Jean-Michel at Nosei does not stay in the grammar of his figuration, whose originality was already recognizable in his graffiti. It is the amazing technical mastery that he suddenly demonstrated for large formats which he had never practiced.
Jean-Michel was already mastering his drawing which he applied in increasingly detailed layers. And he also mastered color, executed in oilstick, acrylic and spray enamel applied with a spontaneity that would have pleased the abstract expressionists.
We do not know the exact day of the works made by Basquiat in Nosei basement but the canvas, 198 x 173 cm, for sale by Christie's in New York on November 14, is known as one of the first.
The fisherman is standing with his black body revealing the skeleton. He wears a crown of thorns and a halo of the same nature. The huge fish is hanging from the line. Basquiat is a threat to the well-meaning art of his time, and the fish could be a voodoo poison taken out of water by a new ambiguous god.
The estimate is not published, but according to the earliest releases this work is expected in the region of $ 20M, lot 42.
POST SALE COMMENT
Christie's had convinced us that this painting is a key work of early Basquiat art: $ 26.4 million including premium.
1981 Horseback Wrestling by Huang Zhou
2013 SOLD for RMB 130M including premium by Poly
narrated in 2021
Huang Zhou liked to express vitality and enthusiasm in his animal studies. Banished during the Cultural Revolution, he actively contributed to the artistic reconstruction and prepared works for diplomatic receptions.
In 1979, on an official visit to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, he was fascinated by traditional customs. In the meadow, at an altitude of 3000 m, the Kirghiz wrestle on horseback between two teams which are distinguished from each other by the color of the embroidery. This sport is also played by women.
The artist is sick. In 1981, with a delay of two years due to a general paralysis, he paints in ink and colors two works on the theme of Kirghiz wrestling, under the title Jubilant Grassland. One of them is hung in the guesthouse for foreign heads of state.
The other, 142 x 360 cm, was used in 1984 as a diplomatic gift for Armand Hammer. The artist had used vegetable pigments and mineral repaints are done to improve stability before the artwork is presented to the "red magnate" visiting Beijing.
Jubilant Grassland, arguably the artist's masterpiece, features two women's teams, for a total of 7 riders, 9 sheepdogs and 80 horses including a large unsaddled group in middle ground. This artwork was sold for RMB 130M including premium by Poly in cooperation with the Huang Zhou Art Foundation on December 2, 2013, lot 1921. It is illustrated in the post sale report by ChinaDaily.
In 1979, on an official visit to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, he was fascinated by traditional customs. In the meadow, at an altitude of 3000 m, the Kirghiz wrestle on horseback between two teams which are distinguished from each other by the color of the embroidery. This sport is also played by women.
The artist is sick. In 1981, with a delay of two years due to a general paralysis, he paints in ink and colors two works on the theme of Kirghiz wrestling, under the title Jubilant Grassland. One of them is hung in the guesthouse for foreign heads of state.
The other, 142 x 360 cm, was used in 1984 as a diplomatic gift for Armand Hammer. The artist had used vegetable pigments and mineral repaints are done to improve stability before the artwork is presented to the "red magnate" visiting Beijing.
Jubilant Grassland, arguably the artist's masterpiece, features two women's teams, for a total of 7 riders, 9 sheepdogs and 80 horses including a large unsaddled group in middle ground. This artwork was sold for RMB 130M including premium by Poly in cooperation with the Huang Zhou Art Foundation on December 2, 2013, lot 1921. It is illustrated in the post sale report by ChinaDaily.
1981 Basquiat
2012 SOLD for £ 13M by Christie's
Jean-Michel Basquiat is the first African American modernist to transcend the white establishment in the history of art. 1981 is a favorable rime. Thirteen years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, the society is changing. The Street art, derived from the punk movement, challenges the conventions.
Top-level sport offers to the Black champions their revenge against racial inequality. By showing the triumph, Jean-Michel deliberately confuses the athlete and the warrior.
An acrylic, oil stick and spray paint on canvas 200 x 183 cm was sold $ 14.6M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, lot 15, and for £ 13M by Christie's on June 27, 2012, lot 31.
Made shortly before New York City discovered the art of Basquiat, it features a hybrid character, life size, the mixture of a mystic deity with a crown of thorns and of the powerful Black boxing champion in the attitude of triumph. The heavyweight boxing was the first sport, and even the first social field, where blacks dominated whites beyond doubt.
Top-level sport offers to the Black champions their revenge against racial inequality. By showing the triumph, Jean-Michel deliberately confuses the athlete and the warrior.
An acrylic, oil stick and spray paint on canvas 200 x 183 cm was sold $ 14.6M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, lot 15, and for £ 13M by Christie's on June 27, 2012, lot 31.
Made shortly before New York City discovered the art of Basquiat, it features a hybrid character, life size, the mixture of a mystic deity with a crown of thorns and of the powerful Black boxing champion in the attitude of triumph. The heavyweight boxing was the first sport, and even the first social field, where blacks dominated whites beyond doubt.
1981 The Mystical Year of Jean-Michel Basquiat
2012 SOLD 16.3 M$ including premium
In 1981, New York discovered Basquiat. He is 21 years old, has already made graffiti and noise rock and played hisown role as a street child in an underground movie, and his artistic skill is exciting Warhol.
His growing fame enables him to develop his art. He works in the basement of the Nosei gallery which supplies him with the large size canvases and panels on which he expresses his revolt.
His major works of that year are mystical. The unique character deifies the emigrant black. As towering as a saint by El Greco, he is naked and sexed, with above his head a halo of thorns which is a reminder of the artist's education.His skin is made in two colors, in memory of his double Haitian and Puerto Rican origin, and transparent to revealthe ribs.
Despite his humble origins, Basquiat had a consistent knowledge of modern art. He used jointly acrylic, oilstick and spray paints for his violent chromatic effects assorted with subtle shades.
A canvas, 200 x 183 cm, with a larger than life character, was sold $ 14.6 million including premium by Sotheby'son May 15, 2007. Another one, 177 x 199 cm, sold $ 11.2 million including premium by Phillips de Pury on May 15, 2008, shows a fallen angel, perhaps the best evidence that these figures are not self-portraits but rather the expression of a mystical outsider culture.
On May 10 in New York, Phillips de Pury sells a painting on wood, 186 x 125 cm, estimated $ 8M. The character is visible as a whole (in every meaning of the word ...). Here is the link to the catalog.
Now money is arriving. A few months later, Basquiat leaves Nosei and tastes the combined effects of luxury and drugs. The following year his iconography is diversifying, becoming more difficult to decode.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding painting is a key to the art of Basquiat. It was sold $ 16.3 million including premium.
His growing fame enables him to develop his art. He works in the basement of the Nosei gallery which supplies him with the large size canvases and panels on which he expresses his revolt.
His major works of that year are mystical. The unique character deifies the emigrant black. As towering as a saint by El Greco, he is naked and sexed, with above his head a halo of thorns which is a reminder of the artist's education.His skin is made in two colors, in memory of his double Haitian and Puerto Rican origin, and transparent to revealthe ribs.
Despite his humble origins, Basquiat had a consistent knowledge of modern art. He used jointly acrylic, oilstick and spray paints for his violent chromatic effects assorted with subtle shades.
A canvas, 200 x 183 cm, with a larger than life character, was sold $ 14.6 million including premium by Sotheby'son May 15, 2007. Another one, 177 x 199 cm, sold $ 11.2 million including premium by Phillips de Pury on May 15, 2008, shows a fallen angel, perhaps the best evidence that these figures are not self-portraits but rather the expression of a mystical outsider culture.
On May 10 in New York, Phillips de Pury sells a painting on wood, 186 x 125 cm, estimated $ 8M. The character is visible as a whole (in every meaning of the word ...). Here is the link to the catalog.
Now money is arriving. A few months later, Basquiat leaves Nosei and tastes the combined effects of luxury and drugs. The following year his iconography is diversifying, becoming more difficult to decode.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding painting is a key to the art of Basquiat. It was sold $ 16.3 million including premium.
1981 Ring by Basquiat
2019 SOLD for $ 15M by Phillips
1981 is the wonderful year of Jean-Michel Basquiat. In January, he is known to a few insiders who want to observe how the growing insecurity in New York City inspires young artists and musicians. In December he is recognized as the most gifted and subtle of the street artists.
His belief has not changed in the mean time. He wants to glorify the African American hero, completely ignored in the museums. He shows the daydream and the real life : the powerful black warrior kings and the white cops. He rightly considers boxing as the typical field where whites have lost the game. The champions of his youth were Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.
In most of his 1981 paintings about boxing, the black hercules has just won and raises both arms in triumph. A close-up figure proudly lifting the crown of thorns above his head, 200 x 183 cm, was sold for £ 13M by Christie's on June 27, 2012, lot 31.
Ring, an acrylic and oilstick 152 x 122 cm, shows the winner alone in the middle of his field of action including ropes and chairs. He does not lift the crown but a powerful spear surmounted by a radiant sun. The champion is not identified but he has the same luxuriant hair as the artist himself.
Ring was sold for $ 7.6M by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012 and for $ 15M by Phillips on November 14, 2019, lot 26.
His belief has not changed in the mean time. He wants to glorify the African American hero, completely ignored in the museums. He shows the daydream and the real life : the powerful black warrior kings and the white cops. He rightly considers boxing as the typical field where whites have lost the game. The champions of his youth were Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.
In most of his 1981 paintings about boxing, the black hercules has just won and raises both arms in triumph. A close-up figure proudly lifting the crown of thorns above his head, 200 x 183 cm, was sold for £ 13M by Christie's on June 27, 2012, lot 31.
Ring, an acrylic and oilstick 152 x 122 cm, shows the winner alone in the middle of his field of action including ropes and chairs. He does not lift the crown but a powerful spear surmounted by a radiant sun. The champion is not identified but he has the same luxuriant hair as the artist himself.
Ring was sold for $ 7.6M by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012 and for $ 15M by Phillips on November 14, 2019, lot 26.
1981 Untitled VII by De Kooning
2021 SOLD for $ 14.6M by Christie's
The aging De Kooning could not sustain for a long time the exhausting process of his masterpieces of 1977 and early 1978. He fell once again in alcoholism and severe anxiety and painstakingly restarted painting in late 1980 with the help of Elaine. He was now concerned by the balance and rhythm of pure colors instead of the rendering of the atmosphere of Long Island.
The Untitled I of 1980, oil on canvas 203 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 14M by Christie's on May 8, 2012, lot 21.
In the same format the Untitled VII of 1981 was sold for $ 14.6M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 40C.
The next step in de Kooning's style will be to simplify the waving lines on smooth backgrounds.
The Untitled I of 1980, oil on canvas 203 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 14M by Christie's on May 8, 2012, lot 21.
In the same format the Untitled VII of 1981 was sold for $ 14.6M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 40C.
The next step in de Kooning's style will be to simplify the waving lines on smooth backgrounds.
