1983
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : USA USA II Basquiat Lichtenstein > 1965 UK II Freud Early Freud Groups The Man
See also : USA USA II Basquiat Lichtenstein > 1965 UK II Freud Early Freud Groups The Man
1983 BASQUIAT
1
In this Case
2021 SOLD for $ 93M by Christie's
There is a tragic turning point in the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat after his two wonder years. As early as January 1983, he tells Geldzahler that his art is now 80 % anger.
In the first phase, the skull viewed through the head or in place of it was a mere artefact, just like the bones viewed through the skin. The two monumental "skull" views of 1982, one sold for $ 110M by Sotheby's in 2017 and the other for $ 57M by Christie's in 2016, use the skull for featuring a terrible and playful demon. Both paintings are untitled.
Also in 1982, an acrylic, oilstick and collage on canvas is titled Red Skull. It displays around that new theme Jean-Michel's signature explosions of seven bright colors. This painting 152 x 152 cm was sold for £ 16.5M by Christie's on October 6, 2017, lot 8.
The game becomes serious. On May 11, 2021, Christie's sold at lot 8 A for $ 93M In this case, acrylic and oilstick on canvas 198 x 187 cm painted in 1983. The April 26 press release had announced an estimate of $ 50M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The skull occupies now the whole surface of the canvas, without a reference to a skin. A half of it is missing, evidencing the post death decay. The surrounding color is a very violent red. The cheek embeds a one-hand clock ticking the disaster of time and the precarity of black men in the US society. The single eye is yellow and the teeth are green.
This opus is considered convincingly as a tribute to the street artist Michael Stewart, beaten to death in September 1983 by the police while attempting to tag in the New York subway. The young African-American graffiti artist was a close friend of Jean-Michel of whom he was dating a previous girlfriend.
The title is a pun, of course. It does not refer to the trivial phrase nor to the cranial case but to the coffin of the friend, while also forwarding a desire of Jean-Michel to go to court against the brutality of the cops.
In the first phase, the skull viewed through the head or in place of it was a mere artefact, just like the bones viewed through the skin. The two monumental "skull" views of 1982, one sold for $ 110M by Sotheby's in 2017 and the other for $ 57M by Christie's in 2016, use the skull for featuring a terrible and playful demon. Both paintings are untitled.
Also in 1982, an acrylic, oilstick and collage on canvas is titled Red Skull. It displays around that new theme Jean-Michel's signature explosions of seven bright colors. This painting 152 x 152 cm was sold for £ 16.5M by Christie's on October 6, 2017, lot 8.
The game becomes serious. On May 11, 2021, Christie's sold at lot 8 A for $ 93M In this case, acrylic and oilstick on canvas 198 x 187 cm painted in 1983. The April 26 press release had announced an estimate of $ 50M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The skull occupies now the whole surface of the canvas, without a reference to a skin. A half of it is missing, evidencing the post death decay. The surrounding color is a very violent red. The cheek embeds a one-hand clock ticking the disaster of time and the precarity of black men in the US society. The single eye is yellow and the teeth are green.
This opus is considered convincingly as a tribute to the street artist Michael Stewart, beaten to death in September 1983 by the police while attempting to tag in the New York subway. The young African-American graffiti artist was a close friend of Jean-Michel of whom he was dating a previous girlfriend.
The title is a pun, of course. It does not refer to the trivial phrase nor to the cranial case but to the coffin of the friend, while also forwarding a desire of Jean-Michel to go to court against the brutality of the cops.
2
January 1983 Flesh and Spirit
2018 SOLD for $ 31M by Sotheby's
At the end of 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat is probably not satisfied with his art from the two years that brought him the fame. With his full color control by the oilstick he had lined up funny characters and skeletons that virulently campaign for the African-American cause. The humorous tags that were revealing his street training eventually disappeared.
Visitors to his exhibitions might believe that he is a visual artist rather than a thinker. He begins a monumental composition related to the prophetic meaning of life. Identified under the title Flesh and Spirit, it is divided into two 184 x 368 cm canvases adjacent one above the other. The whole surface 368 x 368 cm is broken down into four quadrants to be read from left to right and from top to bottom like a page of comic strips.
The first three images show an alchemy interweaving the skull and the bones, the brain and the fleshy limbs, with repetitions of words that guide the path of thought and are sometimes crossed out for avoiding the errors. For the first time in the art of Jean-Michel the word is everywhere and the color is rare.
The last quadrant is completed with a black rectangle in which the interaction between Flesh and Spirit is expressed in a diagram of the greatest simplicity and clarity. Just below it the artist figured a derrick with the word Petrol to announce that the control of the anatomical mystery opens the next phase which is the fight against the consumer society.
Flesh and Spirit is finished just in time for an exhibition in New York in January 1983. It is immediately bought by Dolores Ormandy Neumann who finds in this artwork an achievement of the street art and states with sagacity that she may consider it as Basquiat's Rosetta stone.
Flesh and Spirit was sold for $ 31M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 24. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Basquiat continues in 1983 with this new style of narrative figuration. Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta was sold for $ 23.7M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2014. Brother's Sausage was sold for $ 18.6M on November 17, 2016, also by Sotheby's.
Visitors to his exhibitions might believe that he is a visual artist rather than a thinker. He begins a monumental composition related to the prophetic meaning of life. Identified under the title Flesh and Spirit, it is divided into two 184 x 368 cm canvases adjacent one above the other. The whole surface 368 x 368 cm is broken down into four quadrants to be read from left to right and from top to bottom like a page of comic strips.
The first three images show an alchemy interweaving the skull and the bones, the brain and the fleshy limbs, with repetitions of words that guide the path of thought and are sometimes crossed out for avoiding the errors. For the first time in the art of Jean-Michel the word is everywhere and the color is rare.
The last quadrant is completed with a black rectangle in which the interaction between Flesh and Spirit is expressed in a diagram of the greatest simplicity and clarity. Just below it the artist figured a derrick with the word Petrol to announce that the control of the anatomical mystery opens the next phase which is the fight against the consumer society.
Flesh and Spirit is finished just in time for an exhibition in New York in January 1983. It is immediately bought by Dolores Ormandy Neumann who finds in this artwork an achievement of the street art and states with sagacity that she may consider it as Basquiat's Rosetta stone.
Flesh and Spirit was sold for $ 31M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 24. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Basquiat continues in 1983 with this new style of narrative figuration. Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta was sold for $ 23.7M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2014. Brother's Sausage was sold for $ 18.6M on November 17, 2016, also by Sotheby's.
3
Discography Two
2018 SOLD for $ 21M by Christie's
Jean-Michel Basquiat was a lifelong jazz lover. There was always some music record played while he was painting in his studio. His preferred jazz hero was Charlie Parker, the African-American bebop pioneer who died at 35 in 1955 a mentally disabled drug and alcohol addict.
In 1978 while Jean-Michel was 18, Savoy Records published a five album box set of Parker, including in the B side of the third album eleven takes in four titles by the Miles Davis All Stars.
The All Stars quintet was not a regular band but a 1947 gathering in NewYork around the trumpet player Davis of the best jazz musicians in period, Parker on tenor sax, John Lewis on piano, Nelson Boyd on bass and Max Roach on drums.
Painted in 1983, Discography Two is a handwritten piece of musicology in white oilstick over a monochrome black acrylic background, detailing that sixth album side renumbered F.
This word painting on canvas 168 x 153 cm looks indeed like a chalk tribute on a monumental school board for Jean-Michel to appeal the viewer to his preferred music piece. Music cannot be directly featured in graphic art. Respecting his idol, the artist did not add a figure to his serious text, not even a mere bird that could evoke Parker.
Discography Two was sold for $ 21M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 24C.
In 1978 while Jean-Michel was 18, Savoy Records published a five album box set of Parker, including in the B side of the third album eleven takes in four titles by the Miles Davis All Stars.
The All Stars quintet was not a regular band but a 1947 gathering in NewYork around the trumpet player Davis of the best jazz musicians in period, Parker on tenor sax, John Lewis on piano, Nelson Boyd on bass and Max Roach on drums.
Painted in 1983, Discography Two is a handwritten piece of musicology in white oilstick over a monochrome black acrylic background, detailing that sixth album side renumbered F.
This word painting on canvas 168 x 153 cm looks indeed like a chalk tribute on a monumental school board for Jean-Michel to appeal the viewer to his preferred music piece. Music cannot be directly featured in graphic art. Respecting his idol, the artist did not add a figure to his serious text, not even a mere bird that could evoke Parker.
Discography Two was sold for $ 21M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 24C.
4
November 1983 Flash in Naples
2021 SOLD for $ 20M by Christie's
Dated November 1983 and titled by the artist, Flash in Naples is an attempt by Basquiat to integrate the superheroes of the American comics in his pantheon. Batman and Robin are displayed in the same suite of works beside Mona Lisa, Nat King Cole and Joe Louis.
The Flash is represented in this painting in two handsome figures in the superhero costume. One is standing still and the smaller figure is in a leaping action. The scarlet red title reads an unexpected IL FLASH reminding that Jean-Michel also had Italian influences.
The background is a pattern of colored grids. Three lightning bolts and two arrows add their power. The rare colors include chartreuse, magenta and vermillion. A half erased EMBLEM matches Jean-Michel's statement that “the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.”
This acrylic, oil and oilstick on canvas 168 x 153 cm was sold for $ 8.1M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2017, lot 52 and for $ 20M by Christie's on November 9, 2021, lot 24A.
The Flash is represented in this painting in two handsome figures in the superhero costume. One is standing still and the smaller figure is in a leaping action. The scarlet red title reads an unexpected IL FLASH reminding that Jean-Michel also had Italian influences.
The background is a pattern of colored grids. Three lightning bolts and two arrows add their power. The rare colors include chartreuse, magenta and vermillion. A half erased EMBLEM matches Jean-Michel's statement that “the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.”
This acrylic, oil and oilstick on canvas 168 x 153 cm was sold for $ 8.1M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2017, lot 52 and for $ 20M by Christie's on November 9, 2021, lot 24A.
5
Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta
2014 SOLD for $ 23.7M by Sotheby's
The art of Jean-Michel Basquiat changed radically in 1983. During the previous two years, he had achieved fame by building a pantheon of gods and fierce warriors shown in close-up with a subtle humor.
His art becomes political, endeavoring to support black people against racial injustice and opposing the consumerism of the whites. He painted large murals on canvas, interspersed by either understandable or obscure words that altogether constitute a wild message.
He wants to shock, up to sometimes even glorifying Papa Doc, the dictator hated by the whites. The use of collage enables the indescribable jumble of a newspaper in which the search for the meaning forces the viewer to make a long stop.
On May 14, 2014, Sotheby's sold for $ 23.7M an artwork composed of five joined canvases in an overall format 1.25 x 4.71 m, lot 20.
Reading goes from left to right. The first painting is like a title page, writing "Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta". It is not a reference to the origins of the artist whose father was from Haiti and mother from Puerto Rico. Mississippi Delta is here the emblem of the last bastion of racial segregation.
The next two sections abound in allusions to the hated mechanisms of consumerism with three dates that I have not decoded, somehow like the Australian Aboriginal paintings in which artists retain the memory of battles deliberately forgotten by the whites.
The design is simplified in the fourth chapter highlighting a reference to Mark Twain. The nonconformist writer had dared to use with sympathy the dialect of the slaves in his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. On the last picture, the conclusion is the apotheosis of Negroes who overcame the cotton slavery.
His art becomes political, endeavoring to support black people against racial injustice and opposing the consumerism of the whites. He painted large murals on canvas, interspersed by either understandable or obscure words that altogether constitute a wild message.
He wants to shock, up to sometimes even glorifying Papa Doc, the dictator hated by the whites. The use of collage enables the indescribable jumble of a newspaper in which the search for the meaning forces the viewer to make a long stop.
On May 14, 2014, Sotheby's sold for $ 23.7M an artwork composed of five joined canvases in an overall format 1.25 x 4.71 m, lot 20.
Reading goes from left to right. The first painting is like a title page, writing "Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta". It is not a reference to the origins of the artist whose father was from Haiti and mother from Puerto Rico. Mississippi Delta is here the emblem of the last bastion of racial segregation.
The next two sections abound in allusions to the hated mechanisms of consumerism with three dates that I have not decoded, somehow like the Australian Aboriginal paintings in which artists retain the memory of battles deliberately forgotten by the whites.
The design is simplified in the fourth chapter highlighting a reference to Mark Twain. The nonconformist writer had dared to use with sympathy the dialect of the slaves in his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. On the last picture, the conclusion is the apotheosis of Negroes who overcame the cotton slavery.
6
The Nile
2023 SOLD for $ 67M by Christie's
The epic style with many tag like inscriptions started by Basquiat in 1983 is conceived to vilify slavery. Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta, on five joined panels 125 x 475 cm overall, was sold for $ 23.7M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2014, lot 20.
An acrylic and oilstick on canvas mounted on wood in three parts 173 x 360 cm overall is dealing with Egypt. It is titled The Nile on the reverse while a Latino inscription El Gran Espectaculo is assimilating history to a mere show.
A black figure in the right panel is unambiguously labeled as Slave. Beside him a dog is keeping safe some dictator with the inscription A Dog Guarding the Pharoh. It is not the only deliberate misspelling. Starting the voyage in the left panel, two figures reside in Nuba. A link is made with the USA with Memphis referring to both Thebes and Tennesee, a racial southern state.
A gold sickle is so titled three times, symbolizing the pre-Pharaonic dwellers. Several antique boats transfer them to slavery. Some other inscriptions are erased, including an Amenophis. Symbols include the Eye of Horus in a dominant position.
The first owner of The Nile had been the Nosei gallery of which the artist had departed in the summer of 1982. It was sold for $ 67M by Christie's on May 15, 2023, lot 6 B.
Beside The Nile and The Undiscovered Genius, Basquiat's great epic anti-slavery paintings are History of Black People and Toussaint L'Overture versus Savonarola.
An acrylic and oilstick on canvas mounted on wood in three parts 173 x 360 cm overall is dealing with Egypt. It is titled The Nile on the reverse while a Latino inscription El Gran Espectaculo is assimilating history to a mere show.
A black figure in the right panel is unambiguously labeled as Slave. Beside him a dog is keeping safe some dictator with the inscription A Dog Guarding the Pharoh. It is not the only deliberate misspelling. Starting the voyage in the left panel, two figures reside in Nuba. A link is made with the USA with Memphis referring to both Thebes and Tennesee, a racial southern state.
A gold sickle is so titled three times, symbolizing the pre-Pharaonic dwellers. Several antique boats transfer them to slavery. Some other inscriptions are erased, including an Amenophis. Symbols include the Eye of Horus in a dominant position.
The first owner of The Nile had been the Nosei gallery of which the artist had departed in the summer of 1982. It was sold for $ 67M by Christie's on May 15, 2023, lot 6 B.
Beside The Nile and The Undiscovered Genius, Basquiat's great epic anti-slavery paintings are History of Black People and Toussaint L'Overture versus Savonarola.
1983 After Watteau by Freud
2022 SOLD for $ 86M by Christie's
Lucian Freud was keen to confront his art with antique or ancient masterpieces.
In 1981 the renowned collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza is sitting in Lucian's studio in London for a portrait, achieved in 1982. Behind the head, the artist paints in a fair rendering a half hidden replica of a small fête galante by Watteau recently acquired by the Baron.
The Watteau, titled Pierrot content, features five characters in a garden, four of them seated in a row on a bench. A pretty Columbine is playing mandolin. Lucian will transfer this scene into his own universe in a stand alone picture.
Lucian's oil on canvas, titled Large Interior, W11 (After Watteau) is completed in 1983. It is unprecedented in Lucian Freud's art by its size, 185 x 198 cm, by the staging of more than two characters, and by the fact that the sitters dis not attend together the posing sessions.
It is typical by its very thick impasto and by the fact that Watteau's figures have been replaced by close relatives including his daughter Bella playing Columbine with the mandolin.
The rest of it is Lucian's fancy. The scene is staged in his studio, also referred by the part post code W11 in the title. Watteau's charming high society faces are replaced by unpleasantly concerned figures in creased attire, two of them bare foot.The fountain is now a sink with a running tap. The bench had been recently acquired by Lucian for £ 7.
After Watteau was sold for $ 86M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 34.
In 1981 the renowned collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza is sitting in Lucian's studio in London for a portrait, achieved in 1982. Behind the head, the artist paints in a fair rendering a half hidden replica of a small fête galante by Watteau recently acquired by the Baron.
The Watteau, titled Pierrot content, features five characters in a garden, four of them seated in a row on a bench. A pretty Columbine is playing mandolin. Lucian will transfer this scene into his own universe in a stand alone picture.
Lucian's oil on canvas, titled Large Interior, W11 (After Watteau) is completed in 1983. It is unprecedented in Lucian Freud's art by its size, 185 x 198 cm, by the staging of more than two characters, and by the fact that the sitters dis not attend together the posing sessions.
It is typical by its very thick impasto and by the fact that Watteau's figures have been replaced by close relatives including his daughter Bella playing Columbine with the mandolin.
The rest of it is Lucian's fancy. The scene is staged in his studio, also referred by the part post code W11 in the title. Watteau's charming high society faces are replaced by unpleasantly concerned figures in creased attire, two of them bare foot.The fountain is now a sink with a running tap. The bench had been recently acquired by Lucian for £ 7.
After Watteau was sold for $ 86M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 34.
1983 Flag by Johns
2014 SOLD for $ 36M by Sotheby's
Artistic creation has no limits in New York in 1954. Very young artists endeavor to reject into the past the Abstract Expressionism that was yet barely ten years old.
After meeting Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, aged 24, had one of the most successful intuitions of modern art. Duchamp had introduced the ready mades in artistic creation. Johns will remove the object under its own appearance.
The three colors of the American flag are to Johns an incentive for new art. His flags identical to the official pieces are painted on all kinds of materials including newspapers.
Like Cézanne, he works within the contours as in a cloisonné. Unlike Pollock and Rothko, the first meticulous gesture must be the right one. Any dripping is therefore intentional, which requires a fast drying : Johns painted in wax.
Leo Castelli understands how much the art can be changed by this innovation. Favoring the material instead of shape and color, Johns anticipates Manzoni's achromes and Ryder's white on white while his treatment of a recognizable object is announcing the pop art.
Castelli owned until his death in 1999 one of the earliest Flags by Johns. It was sold in private sale to Steve Cohen in March 2010. Details were not released but the price of $ 110M has not been denied.
On November 11, 2014, Sotheby's sold for $ 36M from a lower estimate of $ 15M a small Flag 30 x 45 cm, lot 9. Painted in 1983, it is a rare example of encaustic painting on an actual silk flag mounted on canvas. Its regular configuration in 6 rows of 8 stars was obsolete since 1959, confirming that the process of Johns is much more artistic than patriotic.
After meeting Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, aged 24, had one of the most successful intuitions of modern art. Duchamp had introduced the ready mades in artistic creation. Johns will remove the object under its own appearance.
The three colors of the American flag are to Johns an incentive for new art. His flags identical to the official pieces are painted on all kinds of materials including newspapers.
Like Cézanne, he works within the contours as in a cloisonné. Unlike Pollock and Rothko, the first meticulous gesture must be the right one. Any dripping is therefore intentional, which requires a fast drying : Johns painted in wax.
Leo Castelli understands how much the art can be changed by this innovation. Favoring the material instead of shape and color, Johns anticipates Manzoni's achromes and Ryder's white on white while his treatment of a recognizable object is announcing the pop art.
Castelli owned until his death in 1999 one of the earliest Flags by Johns. It was sold in private sale to Steve Cohen in March 2010. Details were not released but the price of $ 110M has not been denied.
On November 11, 2014, Sotheby's sold for $ 36M from a lower estimate of $ 15M a small Flag 30 x 45 cm, lot 9. Painted in 1983, it is a rare example of encaustic painting on an actual silk flag mounted on canvas. Its regular configuration in 6 rows of 8 stars was obsolete since 1959, confirming that the process of Johns is much more artistic than patriotic.
1983 Two Paintings: Craig ... by Lichtenstein
2021 SOLD for $ 20.4M by Sotheby's
In the art of Roy Lichtenstein, the young men may have names, whether they are in or out of the picture.
On a 1962 example, the woman states that her Brad darling has made a masterpiece. The man agrees silently with that acknowledgment of his genius. A corner of the frame of the discussed painting is visible on the left without information on what the artwork is displaying.
That 1962 'Masterpiece' was privately sold for $ 165M in 2017. It is an early example of Lichtenstein's lifelong desire to find the deep meaning of art, exemplified in 1965 by his unprecedented theme of the Brushstrokes.
Two years later, the man is Craig, out of the field but referred by the blonde girl in a loving bubble with no reference to art.
The limited frame corner reappears as the stand alone theme of two paintings in 1982. The represented picture is now an uninterpretable abstraction.
The Ben-Day dotted Craig blonde is facing the framed abstraction corner in 1983. Her bubble is trimmed in the upper left corner and the artwork is titled Two Paintings : Craig ... This oil and acrylic on canvas 122 x 91 cm was sold for $ 20.4M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2021, lot 115.
On a 1962 example, the woman states that her Brad darling has made a masterpiece. The man agrees silently with that acknowledgment of his genius. A corner of the frame of the discussed painting is visible on the left without information on what the artwork is displaying.
That 1962 'Masterpiece' was privately sold for $ 165M in 2017. It is an early example of Lichtenstein's lifelong desire to find the deep meaning of art, exemplified in 1965 by his unprecedented theme of the Brushstrokes.
Two years later, the man is Craig, out of the field but referred by the blonde girl in a loving bubble with no reference to art.
The limited frame corner reappears as the stand alone theme of two paintings in 1982. The represented picture is now an uninterpretable abstraction.
The Ben-Day dotted Craig blonde is facing the framed abstraction corner in 1983. Her bubble is trimmed in the upper left corner and the artwork is titled Two Paintings : Craig ... This oil and acrylic on canvas 122 x 91 cm was sold for $ 20.4M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2021, lot 115.
1983 Untitled IV by de Kooning
2021 SOLD for $ 19M by Sotheby's
Throughout his career, Willem de Kooning resolutely set himself apart from all schools. At his beginnings, he removes the border between figurative and abstraction. In the 1970s, shapes and colors become abundant. In the 1980s, they are simplified without becoming minimalist. The formats remain very large, at the limits of the physical possibilities of the aging artist.
The Untitled IV of 1983, oil on canvas 224 x 196 cm, was sold for $ 19M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 17. The artist poses undulating shapes in two pure colors over a white background. A tridimensional effect is created in this flat composition by the fact that no scarlet red element comes overlapping a blue.
The Untitled XLVIII of 1983, of the same dimensions as the Untitled IV, was sold for HK $ 47M by Sotheby's on April 19, 2021, lot 1109. It is also made with only two pure colors, here red and yellow.
Seen more closely, the individual coherence of forms disappears. The yellow is bordered with red, but not everywhere. The space between two yellow elements becomes a ribbon. The yellow element at the bottom left is partially hollowed out. The red lines are broken, with a false invitation to connect the segments. The stretched red shapes carry reflections, which bring a three-dimensional illusion in contradiction with microbiology.
The artist is indeed not a follower of Kandinsky, Mondrian or Matisse even if the overall effect might be reminiscent of Kandinsky's late passion for microbiology.We may try a comparison with his compatriot Escher : In this XLVIII, de Kooning has transferred the impossibility of forms into a total abstraction.
The Untitled IV of 1983, oil on canvas 224 x 196 cm, was sold for $ 19M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 17. The artist poses undulating shapes in two pure colors over a white background. A tridimensional effect is created in this flat composition by the fact that no scarlet red element comes overlapping a blue.
The Untitled XLVIII of 1983, of the same dimensions as the Untitled IV, was sold for HK $ 47M by Sotheby's on April 19, 2021, lot 1109. It is also made with only two pure colors, here red and yellow.
Seen more closely, the individual coherence of forms disappears. The yellow is bordered with red, but not everywhere. The space between two yellow elements becomes a ribbon. The yellow element at the bottom left is partially hollowed out. The red lines are broken, with a false invitation to connect the segments. The stretched red shapes carry reflections, which bring a three-dimensional illusion in contradiction with microbiology.
The artist is indeed not a follower of Kandinsky, Mondrian or Matisse even if the overall effect might be reminiscent of Kandinsky's late passion for microbiology.We may try a comparison with his compatriot Escher : In this XLVIII, de Kooning has transferred the impossibility of forms into a total abstraction.
