1982
1982 The Energy of a Skull
2017 SOLD for $ 110M including premium
The participation of Jean-Michel Basquiat in a collective exhibition in February 1981 attracted the attention of three merchants who will separately have a leading role in the start of his career : Emilio Mazzoli, Annina Nosei and Bruno Bischofberger.
It is to the honor of Annina Nosei to have convinced Jean-Michel that her basement was more appropriate than the streets of New York to let his skills explode. This close collaboration during which the artist can finally work regularly on very large canvases lasted from September 1981 to November 1982.
During that first year Jean-Michel mostly displays characters in full length, apostles of negritude whose transparency of the flesh reveals the skeleton. His perfectly mastered technique with acrylic, spray and oilstick and his fast and accurate stroke bring the expression of an activism unprecedented in art.
A new year begins, with new advances in his artistic language. On May 18 in New York, Sotheby's sells at lot 24 a painting 183 x 173 cm executed in January 1982 for the Nosei Gallery. The April 19 press release announces an estimate over $ 60M.
Like many opus by Jean-Michel, it is untitled. The theme is limited to a huge head to which bright colors and aggressive teeth provide an angry expression. By its transparency, it is a skull or perhaps a mask. Without neck or body, it floats before a blue sky that is perhaps only a gap in a tagged wall.
The monumental heads painted in 1982 are the culmination of the art of Jean-Michel. The devil's head on a canvas 239 x 500 cm painted in March in Modena for Mazzoli was sold for $ 57M including premium by Christie's on May 10, 2016. Pairs of characters also appear : Dustheads was sold for $ 49M including premium on 15 May 2013, also by Christie's.
It is to the honor of Annina Nosei to have convinced Jean-Michel that her basement was more appropriate than the streets of New York to let his skills explode. This close collaboration during which the artist can finally work regularly on very large canvases lasted from September 1981 to November 1982.
During that first year Jean-Michel mostly displays characters in full length, apostles of negritude whose transparency of the flesh reveals the skeleton. His perfectly mastered technique with acrylic, spray and oilstick and his fast and accurate stroke bring the expression of an activism unprecedented in art.
A new year begins, with new advances in his artistic language. On May 18 in New York, Sotheby's sells at lot 24 a painting 183 x 173 cm executed in January 1982 for the Nosei Gallery. The April 19 press release announces an estimate over $ 60M.
Like many opus by Jean-Michel, it is untitled. The theme is limited to a huge head to which bright colors and aggressive teeth provide an angry expression. By its transparency, it is a skull or perhaps a mask. Without neck or body, it floats before a blue sky that is perhaps only a gap in a tagged wall.
The monumental heads painted in 1982 are the culmination of the art of Jean-Michel. The devil's head on a canvas 239 x 500 cm painted in March in Modena for Mazzoli was sold for $ 57M including premium by Christie's on May 10, 2016. Pairs of characters also appear : Dustheads was sold for $ 49M including premium on 15 May 2013, also by Christie's.
1982 A Black Demon in Modena
2016 SOLD for $ 57M including premium
Jean-Michel Basquiat made two trips to Italy early in his career.
The first visit in the spring of 1981 was caused by the exhibition dedicated to him in Modena by Emilio Mazzoli. He discovered Europe and painted the very weird Field next to the other road. This mural sized canvas 221 x 401 cm tells that the basement of Annina Nosei is already not sufficient to match his grand vision. This painting was sold for $ 37M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2015.
Jean-Michel returns to Modena in March 1982. He executes a pair of paintings on the traditional Italian theme of paradise and hell but as usual he blurs the message to exacerbate his vision of the power to the blacks. An advised art critic would later comment that Jean-Michel Basquiat had been the Jimi Hendrix of painting.
On May 10 in New York, Christie's sells the devil's figure at lot 36 B. Jean-Michel understood the visual advantage of gigantism which will be one of the essential characteristics of the art of our time : the size of the canvas is 239 x 500 cm. It is painted in acrylic without oil stick, enabling to introduce some drippings below the puddles of bright colors surrounding the horned head.
Some critics see a self-portrait in this devil. This is an excessive opinion because the lines are stylized, but indeed this threatening tribal face reflects the ambition of the young artist to become a redeemer of the world.
Jean-Michel did not need to give a title to his Demon, unlike the divine figure which he called Profit 1 by one of his usual claw blows against capitalism. The contrast is striking : here the background is dark and tagged, the round mouth is shouting a sermon that nobody will listen.
The press release of April 15 indicates that this Untitled is estimated in excess of $ 40M.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's. This masterpiece is discussed by Brett Gorvy.
The first visit in the spring of 1981 was caused by the exhibition dedicated to him in Modena by Emilio Mazzoli. He discovered Europe and painted the very weird Field next to the other road. This mural sized canvas 221 x 401 cm tells that the basement of Annina Nosei is already not sufficient to match his grand vision. This painting was sold for $ 37M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2015.
Jean-Michel returns to Modena in March 1982. He executes a pair of paintings on the traditional Italian theme of paradise and hell but as usual he blurs the message to exacerbate his vision of the power to the blacks. An advised art critic would later comment that Jean-Michel Basquiat had been the Jimi Hendrix of painting.
On May 10 in New York, Christie's sells the devil's figure at lot 36 B. Jean-Michel understood the visual advantage of gigantism which will be one of the essential characteristics of the art of our time : the size of the canvas is 239 x 500 cm. It is painted in acrylic without oil stick, enabling to introduce some drippings below the puddles of bright colors surrounding the horned head.
Some critics see a self-portrait in this devil. This is an excessive opinion because the lines are stylized, but indeed this threatening tribal face reflects the ambition of the young artist to become a redeemer of the world.
Jean-Michel did not need to give a title to his Demon, unlike the divine figure which he called Profit 1 by one of his usual claw blows against capitalism. The contrast is striking : here the background is dark and tagged, the round mouth is shouting a sermon that nobody will listen.
The press release of April 15 indicates that this Untitled is estimated in excess of $ 40M.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's. This masterpiece is discussed by Brett Gorvy.
1982 The Hallucinations of Jean-Michel Basquiat
2013 SOLD 49 M$ including premium
In 1981, Basquiat was spreading a mystical message with heavy criticisms against mankind and society. In addition to the revolutionary language of the former street child, his artistic success is due to the exceptional quality of his technique and to the originality of his figuration.
1982 is another great year. Dustheads, 183 x 213 cm, is a fascinating work. Two characters side by side look at the viewer with stupidity and wickedness. The figure on the right dominates with his hilarious face and strident colors. Are they aliens or voodoo masks?
They may only be hallucinations. The title Dustheads comes directly from the slang of the drug. 1982 was a transition year for Basquiat, and this work is curiously close to the most disturbing figures of his former street art.
Despite its aggressiveness, Dustheads is an engaging work that has not yet been reached by the obscurity of his future political message. It is estimated $ 25M, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
Well supported by the media effort of Christie's, this painting is recognized as one of the masterpieces by Basquiat. The result, $ 49M including premium, is exceeding all expectations.
1982 is another great year. Dustheads, 183 x 213 cm, is a fascinating work. Two characters side by side look at the viewer with stupidity and wickedness. The figure on the right dominates with his hilarious face and strident colors. Are they aliens or voodoo masks?
They may only be hallucinations. The title Dustheads comes directly from the slang of the drug. 1982 was a transition year for Basquiat, and this work is curiously close to the most disturbing figures of his former street art.
Despite its aggressiveness, Dustheads is an engaging work that has not yet been reached by the obscurity of his future political message. It is estimated $ 25M, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
Well supported by the media effort of Christie's, this painting is recognized as one of the masterpieces by Basquiat. The result, $ 49M including premium, is exceeding all expectations.
1982 The Bliss of Spring
2016 SOLD for HK$ 270M including premium
Zhang Daqian was the most skilled artist of all time, able to imitate and copy up to perfection the great Chinese masters of all dynasties and to develop new techniques of his own. Splashing his paper with layers of transparent paint, he renews the expression of landscapes without reaching abstraction, with hues in perfectly controlled gradients.
Zhang returned to Asia in 1976. He however sees that urbanization is threatening the tranquility of his residence in Taiwan. He reacts as a poet. Made in 1982, Peach blossom spring exposes his grandiose dream of a paradise that can no longer exist. According to the Chinese artistic tradition, he inserts a poem explaining his quest for bliss.
This artwork combining drawing and splash is somehow his artistic legacy in the form of a hanging scroll of very large size 209 x 92 cm. The dream realized with a malachite green pigment is a column of progressive splashes reaching a sumptuous intensity in the top of the image.
This magnificent burst of color removes up to the edges of the picture a landscape in sharp lines but without details excepted the little boat of a fisherman. At the bottom of the blue green column, the border with the real world is provided by a row of peach trees undertaking to grow their flowering branches upward into the dreamlike sky.
His use of increasingly expressive colors explains the considerable interest of the old master in the art of Zao Wou-ki. Their meeting, highly significant for appreciating the evolution of modern Chinese painting, took place in the following year a few weeks before the death of Zhang.
Peach blossom spring is estimated HK $ 50M for sale by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 5, lot 1273.
Zhang returned to Asia in 1976. He however sees that urbanization is threatening the tranquility of his residence in Taiwan. He reacts as a poet. Made in 1982, Peach blossom spring exposes his grandiose dream of a paradise that can no longer exist. According to the Chinese artistic tradition, he inserts a poem explaining his quest for bliss.
This artwork combining drawing and splash is somehow his artistic legacy in the form of a hanging scroll of very large size 209 x 92 cm. The dream realized with a malachite green pigment is a column of progressive splashes reaching a sumptuous intensity in the top of the image.
This magnificent burst of color removes up to the edges of the picture a landscape in sharp lines but without details excepted the little boat of a fisherman. At the bottom of the blue green column, the border with the real world is provided by a row of peach trees undertaking to grow their flowering branches upward into the dreamlike sky.
His use of increasingly expressive colors explains the considerable interest of the old master in the art of Zao Wou-ki. Their meeting, highly significant for appreciating the evolution of modern Chinese painting, took place in the following year a few weeks before the death of Zhang.
Peach blossom spring is estimated HK $ 50M for sale by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 5, lot 1273.
1982 Untitled with the Golden Crown by Basquiat
2013 SOLD for $ 29M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
As soon as he was invited to work in Annina Nosei's basement in 1981, Jean-Michel Basquiat gathered the elements of his personal mythology. An acrylic, oilstick and spray enamel on canvas 173 x 262 cm is typical. The character is an African warrior in the rough who wields a huge sword and a handful of radiant arrows or lightnings. This artwork was sold for $ 35M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2014.
On November 12, 2013, Christie's sold as lot 15 a simplified version of this image for $ 29M including premium. Just as deliciously terrifying, this 183 x 122 cm acrylic and oilstick on wood painted in 1982 for Annina Nosei brings a better readability of the character, almost life-size in a surrounding of more vivid colors.
The main biomorphic features are retained, such as the skull-shaped head and the opening of the torso to internal organs. He is a tribal leader or an African American champion, with boxer shorts and gigantic feet that provide stability and triumph. The three-pointed crown is larger and golden. The blood-red eyes are replaced with a gold plating.
Unlike the example of the previous year, the character no longer needs tags to convey his message. The weapons are replaced by a gigantic golden femur brandished like a scepter by this king of high fantasy. He is both winner and victim, ridiculous and autobiographical, in line with Basquiat's scathing humor of the time.
On November 12, 2013, Christie's sold as lot 15 a simplified version of this image for $ 29M including premium. Just as deliciously terrifying, this 183 x 122 cm acrylic and oilstick on wood painted in 1982 for Annina Nosei brings a better readability of the character, almost life-size in a surrounding of more vivid colors.
The main biomorphic features are retained, such as the skull-shaped head and the opening of the torso to internal organs. He is a tribal leader or an African American champion, with boxer shorts and gigantic feet that provide stability and triumph. The three-pointed crown is larger and golden. The blood-red eyes are replaced with a gold plating.
Unlike the example of the previous year, the character no longer needs tags to convey his message. The weapons are replaced by a gigantic golden femur brandished like a scepter by this king of high fantasy. He is both winner and victim, ridiculous and autobiographical, in line with Basquiat's scathing humor of the time.
1982 Tar and Feathers by Basquiat
2013 SOLD for $ 26M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
After his artistic experience in Modena in the spring of 1981, Basquiat returned under New York influence. His temporary installation in Annina Nosei's basement begins in September.
The activism against the humiliating living conditions of African Americans is gradually becoming his major theme. Pollo Frito, inspired by slavery in the Southern States, is included in the exhibition at the Nosei Gallery in March-April 1982. It was sold for $ 25.7M including premium by Sotheby's on November 14, 2018.
Basquiat leaves immediately afterward for Los Angeles. He has lots of ideas, works fast, and is decidedly inspired by California. This opportunity allows him to experiment with the more complex techniques of mixed media.
The exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles with the support of Nosei in April-May 1982 already includes his first masterpieces of this new phase, including two works forming pendants on the theme of tar and feathers.
The two works have no title defined by the artist and are identified by their dominant color : Yellow Tar and Feathers, and Black Tar and Feathers. With a narrative intention that follows the Pollo Frito, the artist separates each work into two registers. He no longer uses canvas but wood on which he can at will paste photocopies of drawings and stick ugly masses of feathers in the paint.
The yellow version, 245 x 230 cm, was sold for $ 26M including premium by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 10. As in the Pollo Frito, it incorporates a lot of subtleties, some of which are only identifiable by insiders.
At the left of the upper register, a misshapen bag bears the inscription TAR just beside a lynching, the other type of abject abuse traditionally inflicted on Negroes. A little further on, one of the three characters has the head of Harry Geldzahler, the white guru of this modern New York art that Basquiat has just fled.
The activism against the humiliating living conditions of African Americans is gradually becoming his major theme. Pollo Frito, inspired by slavery in the Southern States, is included in the exhibition at the Nosei Gallery in March-April 1982. It was sold for $ 25.7M including premium by Sotheby's on November 14, 2018.
Basquiat leaves immediately afterward for Los Angeles. He has lots of ideas, works fast, and is decidedly inspired by California. This opportunity allows him to experiment with the more complex techniques of mixed media.
The exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles with the support of Nosei in April-May 1982 already includes his first masterpieces of this new phase, including two works forming pendants on the theme of tar and feathers.
The two works have no title defined by the artist and are identified by their dominant color : Yellow Tar and Feathers, and Black Tar and Feathers. With a narrative intention that follows the Pollo Frito, the artist separates each work into two registers. He no longer uses canvas but wood on which he can at will paste photocopies of drawings and stick ugly masses of feathers in the paint.
The yellow version, 245 x 230 cm, was sold for $ 26M including premium by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 10. As in the Pollo Frito, it incorporates a lot of subtleties, some of which are only identifiable by insiders.
At the left of the upper register, a misshapen bag bears the inscription TAR just beside a lynching, the other type of abject abuse traditionally inflicted on Negroes. A little further on, one of the three characters has the head of Harry Geldzahler, the white guru of this modern New York art that Basquiat has just fled.
1982 Chicken with Asbestos
2018 SOLD for $ 25.7M including premium
On November 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells as lot 21 a diptych of total size 153 x 306 cm painted in 1982 by Basquiat. The September 28 press release announces an estimate in excess of $ 25M.
This painting in acrylic, oil stick, enamel and incisions is dominated by incendiary colors : yellow, orange, red, beside the head of an angry cook. The many tags are in the style of texts adored by the street kids, incomprehensible by the bourgeois (and not decoded in the catalog of the sale).
The words Pollo Frito written like on a sign are not tags but the offer by the cook. The inscriptions all around are menacing : danger, peligroso, broke glass. The lower left corner is darker, symbolizing a stove on which Asbestos is written three times. The three-pointed crown is a signature of the artist.
The cook of chickens is furious against these young taggers who do not attack only the bourgeois but his Pollo Frito was formerly the typical food of the slaves of the south. The dangers of asbestos are a modern threat that the bourgeois still pretend to ignore at that time.
This diptych thus appears as an immediate precursor of the five-panel 125 x 471 cm political fresco titled Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta, painted in the following year, sold for $ 23.7M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2014.
This painting in acrylic, oil stick, enamel and incisions is dominated by incendiary colors : yellow, orange, red, beside the head of an angry cook. The many tags are in the style of texts adored by the street kids, incomprehensible by the bourgeois (and not decoded in the catalog of the sale).
The words Pollo Frito written like on a sign are not tags but the offer by the cook. The inscriptions all around are menacing : danger, peligroso, broke glass. The lower left corner is darker, symbolizing a stove on which Asbestos is written three times. The three-pointed crown is a signature of the artist.
The cook of chickens is furious against these young taggers who do not attack only the bourgeois but his Pollo Frito was formerly the typical food of the slaves of the south. The dangers of asbestos are a modern threat that the bourgeois still pretend to ignore at that time.
This diptych thus appears as an immediate precursor of the five-panel 125 x 471 cm political fresco titled Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta, painted in the following year, sold for $ 23.7M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2014.
1982 A Frenetic and Happy Basquiat
2013 SOLD 18.8 M£ including premium
In 1981, Jean-Michel Basquiat rushed like a rocket in the world of art. Despite his young age, his painting technique is complex and flawless. He paints the fearsome gods of the pantheon of his imagination.
Success came immediately. In 1982, he diversified his grammar. Compared to most of the works of the previous year, the painting for sale on June 25 at Christie's in London is remarkably optimistic.
The colors in acrylic and oilstick are pure and bright. The drawing reminds the frenetic graffiti, as if the work had been painted on a white wall. Using a large format is essential for highlighting the art of our time, and this panel measures 183 x 244 cm.
The two characters of different colors in a non-identifiable external environment are looking straight at the viewer. In the very specific style of Basquiat, they are as ugly as the couples of tourists by Duane Hanson, but for once they are happy.
POST SALE COMMENT
This cool painting from the second great year of Basquiat was sold for £ 18.8M including premium.
Success came immediately. In 1982, he diversified his grammar. Compared to most of the works of the previous year, the painting for sale on June 25 at Christie's in London is remarkably optimistic.
The colors in acrylic and oilstick are pure and bright. The drawing reminds the frenetic graffiti, as if the work had been painted on a white wall. Using a large format is essential for highlighting the art of our time, and this panel measures 183 x 244 cm.
The two characters of different colors in a non-identifiable external environment are looking straight at the viewer. In the very specific style of Basquiat, they are as ugly as the couples of tourists by Duane Hanson, but for once they are happy.
POST SALE COMMENT
This cool painting from the second great year of Basquiat was sold for £ 18.8M including premium.
1982 Drama in the Ice
2017 SOLD for £ 17.7M including premium
The Arctic landscapes by Gerhard Richter are associated with turning points in his personal life. In 1972 he made a ten-day cruise to Greenland to forget his professional and conjugal embarrassments and he shot almost abstract photos on the theme of light on ice. He liked to refer to the romantic work of Caspar David Friedrich evoking the heroic exploration of the Northwest Passage in the 1820s.
The situation is different in 1981. Richter divorces from Ema, his wife since 1957, and prepares his second marriage, with Isa. Recognizing that he is closing a phase of his life, he reminds his intense experience in Greenland, with the lifeless frozen sea in a light which is splendid by its uniformity.
He painted three oil paintings on this theme.
Eis, 70 x 100 cm, opus 476 painted in 1981, shows the ice blocks drifting up to the horizon in this world where human beings have no access. It was sold for £ 4,3M including premium by Sotheby's on February 15, 2012. Eisberg im Nebel, of same size, opus 496-1 made in 1982, is a study of fog on a free sea.
On March 8 in London, Sotheby's sells the largest of the three artworks, Eisberg, 101 x 151 cm, opus 496-2 painted in 1982, lot 8 estimated £ 8M. The composition is dominated by a towering iceberg over the horizon. On the sea the mountain is imperceptibly subject to movement at this key moment when the life of the artist is changing.
I do not think that the reference to Friedrich remains relevant at the time of the 1982 paintings. The artist is then fascinated by the diversity of light and by the challenge that it creates for the painter. The series of candles (Kerzen), much more ambitious, begins immediately afterward, opus 497-1 to 497-3, 498-1 to 498-4, 499-1 to 499-4 and later extensions.
The situation is different in 1981. Richter divorces from Ema, his wife since 1957, and prepares his second marriage, with Isa. Recognizing that he is closing a phase of his life, he reminds his intense experience in Greenland, with the lifeless frozen sea in a light which is splendid by its uniformity.
He painted three oil paintings on this theme.
Eis, 70 x 100 cm, opus 476 painted in 1981, shows the ice blocks drifting up to the horizon in this world where human beings have no access. It was sold for £ 4,3M including premium by Sotheby's on February 15, 2012. Eisberg im Nebel, of same size, opus 496-1 made in 1982, is a study of fog on a free sea.
On March 8 in London, Sotheby's sells the largest of the three artworks, Eisberg, 101 x 151 cm, opus 496-2 painted in 1982, lot 8 estimated £ 8M. The composition is dominated by a towering iceberg over the horizon. On the sea the mountain is imperceptibly subject to movement at this key moment when the life of the artist is changing.
I do not think that the reference to Friedrich remains relevant at the time of the 1982 paintings. The artist is then fascinated by the diversity of light and by the challenge that it creates for the painter. The series of candles (Kerzen), much more ambitious, begins immediately afterward, opus 497-1 to 497-3, 498-1 to 498-4, 499-1 to 499-4 and later extensions.
1982 The Scarlet Skull
2017 SOLD for £ 16.5M including premium
On May 18, 2017, Sotheby's sold for $ 110M including premium an Untitled 183 x 173 cm painted by Basquiat in January 1982. A Red Skull 152 x 152 cm of the same year is for sale by Christie's in London on October 6, lot 8. Beyond the fact that both are centered on a single skull, these artworks have significant differences.
The Untitled skull is floating in front of an uncertain surrounding that can be a break through a palisade. Large and black and occupying two thirds in both height and width of the image, it is breathing an extreme power. With several holes opening to the blue sky and a red tongue, it is a crazy mask as well as a mere human skull.
The Red Skull features a scarlet red skull with hollow cheeks, smaller in its proportion within the image. Less obsessive than the other skull, it therefore leaves a better place to its surrounding which is a masterpiece of synthesis of modern art to which the artist adds his innovative mastery of pure colors by the technique of the oilstick .
A great jazz lover, Basquiat admired the art of Franz Kline. King Oliver, an abstract painting 250 x 197 cm painted by Kline in 1958 and sold for $ 26.5M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014, was already a balance of pure colors brought onto the canvas by a musicalist gesture.
Red Skull is a very good example of the expressionist balance brought by Basquiat with no less than seven colors, red, blue, lilac, pink, green, yellow and gold, covering the entire canvas unlike the explosions by Kline or by Joan Mitchell. The work is also embellished with urban structures tending to abstraction that would have enchanted Kandinsky or de Kooning.
The Untitled skull is floating in front of an uncertain surrounding that can be a break through a palisade. Large and black and occupying two thirds in both height and width of the image, it is breathing an extreme power. With several holes opening to the blue sky and a red tongue, it is a crazy mask as well as a mere human skull.
The Red Skull features a scarlet red skull with hollow cheeks, smaller in its proportion within the image. Less obsessive than the other skull, it therefore leaves a better place to its surrounding which is a masterpiece of synthesis of modern art to which the artist adds his innovative mastery of pure colors by the technique of the oilstick .
A great jazz lover, Basquiat admired the art of Franz Kline. King Oliver, an abstract painting 250 x 197 cm painted by Kline in 1958 and sold for $ 26.5M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014, was already a balance of pure colors brought onto the canvas by a musicalist gesture.
Red Skull is a very good example of the expressionist balance brought by Basquiat with no less than seven colors, red, blue, lilac, pink, green, yellow and gold, covering the entire canvas unlike the explosions by Kline or by Joan Mitchell. The work is also embellished with urban structures tending to abstraction that would have enchanted Kandinsky or de Kooning.
