USA
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Top 10 US painting < 1940 Hopper Rothko Rothko 1957-70 Lichtenstein Warhol USA by Warhol Celebrities by Warhol Basquiat Abstract art The Woman The Man Groups Animals Sculpture Koons
Chronology : 20th century 1920-1929 1929 1954 1960-1969 1961 1963 1964 1980-1989 1982 1983 1986
See also : Top 10 US painting < 1940 Hopper Rothko Rothko 1957-70 Lichtenstein Warhol USA by Warhol Celebrities by Warhol Basquiat Abstract art The Woman The Man Groups Animals Sculpture Koons
Chronology : 20th century 1920-1929 1929 1954 1960-1969 1961 1963 1964 1980-1989 1982 1983 1986
1929 Chop Suey by Hopper
2018 SOLD for $ 92M by Christie's
Very francophile after a stay in Paris, Edward Hopper observes on his return to New York the differences in the art of living between the two continents. Everything is changing very quickly in the United States in the 1920s around a new organization of work that better incorporates women, respects their individuality better and gives them some freedom.
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey as sold for $ 92M from a lower estimate of $ 70M by Christie's on November 13, 2018, lot 12 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 14, 2018
#AuctionUpdate Edward Hopper's iconic 'Chop Suey' achieves a staggering $91,875,000, a new #WorldAuctionRecord for the category of American Art https://bit.ly/2B1UzKF
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey as sold for $ 92M from a lower estimate of $ 70M by Christie's on November 13, 2018, lot 12 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 14, 2018
#AuctionUpdate Edward Hopper's iconic 'Chop Suey' achieves a staggering $91,875,000, a new #WorldAuctionRecord for the category of American Art https://bit.ly/2B1UzKF
- The painting "Chop Suey" by Edward Hopper, sold for $91.875 million in November 2018, reflects a rare market peak for American art, surpassing previous records like Georgia O’Keeffe’s $44.4 million "Jimson Weed" (2014), driven by demand from ultra-wealthy collectors amid global economic inequality.
- Hopper’s depiction of two women in a diner, possibly inspired by his frequent visits to a Columbus Circle restaurant, subtly critiques 1920s urban isolation, a theme supported by art historian Gail Levin’s analysis linking the painting’s muted tones to personal memory over realism.
- The auction’s record price, noted by Christie’s, contrasts with studies like those from the National Endowment for the Arts (2018), which highlight how such expenditures could fund arts education for millions, sparking debate on wealth distribution in the art world.
1961 Orange, Red, Yellow by Rothko
2012 SOLD for $ 87M by Christie's
In 1961 Mark Rothko tries his mind in the expressive radiance of rare hues of red and of adjacent colors in vertical arrangements of his signature rectangles, in a renewed approach to the mesmerizing illusion of space.
That comes of course in the follow of his 1954 admiration for Matisse's L'Atelier Rouge, but an influence from Monet's abstract trends in his later works may also be considered just after the great 1960 Monet exhibition at the MoMA.
The dimensions of his canvases have increased and are standardized. The rectangles occupy almost all the available surface, over a negligible neutral background. Most significantly, the preferred color of the artist is now the most vibrant of them : red.
On May 8, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 87M from a lower estimate of $ 35M an oil on canvas, 236 x 206 cm, titled Orange, Red, Yellow. It is dominated by a bright vermilion, omnipresent, whose perfect monochromy is the result of a meticulous brushwork.
This painting was owned since 1967 by a demanding collector who considered it as one of the most successful pieces in Rothko's art.
Response by Grok to an ArtHitParade tweet :
That comes of course in the follow of his 1954 admiration for Matisse's L'Atelier Rouge, but an influence from Monet's abstract trends in his later works may also be considered just after the great 1960 Monet exhibition at the MoMA.
The dimensions of his canvases have increased and are standardized. The rectangles occupy almost all the available surface, over a negligible neutral background. Most significantly, the preferred color of the artist is now the most vibrant of them : red.
On May 8, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 87M from a lower estimate of $ 35M an oil on canvas, 236 x 206 cm, titled Orange, Red, Yellow. It is dominated by a bright vermilion, omnipresent, whose perfect monochromy is the result of a meticulous brushwork.
This painting was owned since 1967 by a demanding collector who considered it as one of the most successful pieces in Rothko's art.
Response by Grok to an ArtHitParade tweet :
- The 2012 auction of Mark Rothko's "Orange, Red, Yellow" for $86.8 million at Christie's marked a historic moment, surpassing the previous record for post-war art, driven by a rare six-and-a-half-minute bidding war that reflected growing investor interest in abstract expressionism.
- Art market analysis from the Journal of Cultural Economics (2015) suggests that Rothko's use of bold colors like red and orange, which fetched higher prices due to psychological appeal, contributed to the painting's value, challenging the notion that artistic merit alone dictates auction outcomes.
- The sale coincided with a global economic recovery post-2008, with art as an alternative asset class gaining traction, as evidenced by a 2013 Deloitte report showing a 29% increase in high-net-worth individuals investing in art, adding context to the painting's record-breaking price.
WARHOL
1
1963 Silver Car Crash
2013 SOLD for $ 105M by Sotheby's
Andy Warhol achieves fame in 1962 by collecting and repeating images of consumer items and movie stars. The effect on his own psyche is negative : he keeps the impression of being alone in facing the risk of a sudden death. His daily practice of Catholicism will never allow him to overcome this morbid terror.
The American dream is not enough to express the world. Automobile is very popular in the USA, and a symbol of freedom. Car crash claims the death of more than 100 people per day. The readers of the newspapers do not feel concerned by the horrible news and illustrations from the disaster.
Andy reacts against this social issue that hurts his Catholic devotion. In 1963 he begins his Death and Disaster themes. He re-screens the images of the most terrible car accidents. The series also includes his blame against the electric chair. He would say much later: "Nobody in America has a normal life".
On November 13, 2013, Sotheby's sold for $ 105M from a lower estimate of $ 60M Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), a diptych 267 x 416 cm overall, lot 16.
On the left, the image is repeated fifteen times in three columns and five rows, with some variations in the shades of gray. On the right, the area is empty, as if the horrific scene had an extension inviting for the destruction of other lives and other cars. Warhol made a similar use of the diptych in some pictures of Liz.
Response by Grok :
Quote
ART FLAW @ART_FLAW Jan 30, 2024
| LES RECORDS DU MARCHÉ DE L'ART 30/31 | Andy Warhol, Silver Car Crash (double disaster), 1963. Adjugée pour 105,4 millions de dollars (frais compris) le 13 novembre 2013 par Sotheby’s New York. L’œuvre fut acquise anonymement. D'après les informations connues à ce jour
The American dream is not enough to express the world. Automobile is very popular in the USA, and a symbol of freedom. Car crash claims the death of more than 100 people per day. The readers of the newspapers do not feel concerned by the horrible news and illustrations from the disaster.
Andy reacts against this social issue that hurts his Catholic devotion. In 1963 he begins his Death and Disaster themes. He re-screens the images of the most terrible car accidents. The series also includes his blame against the electric chair. He would say much later: "Nobody in America has a normal life".
On November 13, 2013, Sotheby's sold for $ 105M from a lower estimate of $ 60M Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), a diptych 267 x 416 cm overall, lot 16.
On the left, the image is repeated fifteen times in three columns and five rows, with some variations in the shades of gray. On the right, the area is empty, as if the horrific scene had an extension inviting for the destruction of other lives and other cars. Warhol made a similar use of the diptych in some pictures of Liz.
Response by Grok :
Quote
ART FLAW @ART_FLAW Jan 30, 2024
| LES RECORDS DU MARCHÉ DE L'ART 30/31 | Andy Warhol, Silver Car Crash (double disaster), 1963. Adjugée pour 105,4 millions de dollars (frais compris) le 13 novembre 2013 par Sotheby’s New York. L’œuvre fut acquise anonymement. D'après les informations connues à ce jour
- The artwork "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)" by Andy Warhol, sold for $105.4 million in 2013, reflects his 1963 Death and Disaster series, which used silkscreen techniques to replicate media images of car crashes, challenging societal desensitization to violence as documented in a 1962 study by sociologist David Altheide on media's role in normalizing death.
- Created at age 35, the piece’s massive 13-foot span and stark division between a chaotic crash image and a blank canvas symbolize the American Dream’s collapse, a theme supported by art historian Neil Printz’s analysis linking it to suburban nightmares, resonating with a 1960s rise in car accident deaths (over 50,000 annually in the U.S., per NHTSA data).
- Its anonymous 2013 Sotheby’s sale marks a pivotal moment in the art market, where post-1960s works began dominating high-value auctions, a shift noted in Artsy’s 2025 report on young collectors driving demand for provocative modern art, overturning the prior dominance of Old Masters.
2
1964 Shot Marilyn
2022 SOLD for $ 195M by Christie's
In 1964 Andy Warhol revisits his quintessential Marilyn with a more sophisticated screening process for an increased luminosity and detail. He prepares five paintings 102 x 102 cm each in acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen, with respective red, orange, light blue, sage blue and turquoise backgrounds.
He is still stacking them at The Factory when a woman asks him the authorization to shoot them. She is the friend of the usual photographer of The Factory and Andy accepts. She does not come with a camera but with a revolver and shoots the stack of four at the level of Marilyn's forehead. They are now known as the Shot Marilyns despite being repaired with no evidence left from the hole. The turquoise had been spared. Andy fired the photographer.
Shot Orange was sold for $ 17.3M by Sotheby's on May 14, 1998. It was rumored in December 2017 to have been sold for $ 250M to the financier Kenneth Griffin. Shot Red was sold by Christie's to a Japanese bidder for $ 4M in 1989 and privately acquired by Philip Niarchos in 1994 for a reported $ 3.6M. Shot Light Blue was acquired in 1967 by Peter Brant. Spared from the shot, the Turquoise was rumored in 2007 to have been sold to Steven Cohen for $ 80M.
Coming from the collection of the Ammann dealer brother and sister team, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn was sold for $ 195M by Christie's on May 9, 2022, lot 36A.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 10, 2022
#AuctionUpdate Andy Warhol’s ‘Shot Sage Blue Marilyn’ breaks the #WorldAuctionRecord for the most expensive 20th century work sold at auction; price realized $195 million
He is still stacking them at The Factory when a woman asks him the authorization to shoot them. She is the friend of the usual photographer of The Factory and Andy accepts. She does not come with a camera but with a revolver and shoots the stack of four at the level of Marilyn's forehead. They are now known as the Shot Marilyns despite being repaired with no evidence left from the hole. The turquoise had been spared. Andy fired the photographer.
Shot Orange was sold for $ 17.3M by Sotheby's on May 14, 1998. It was rumored in December 2017 to have been sold for $ 250M to the financier Kenneth Griffin. Shot Red was sold by Christie's to a Japanese bidder for $ 4M in 1989 and privately acquired by Philip Niarchos in 1994 for a reported $ 3.6M. Shot Light Blue was acquired in 1967 by Peter Brant. Spared from the shot, the Turquoise was rumored in 2007 to have been sold to Steven Cohen for $ 80M.
Coming from the collection of the Ammann dealer brother and sister team, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn was sold for $ 195M by Christie's on May 9, 2022, lot 36A.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 10, 2022
#AuctionUpdate Andy Warhol’s ‘Shot Sage Blue Marilyn’ breaks the #WorldAuctionRecord for the most expensive 20th century work sold at auction; price realized $195 million
- The "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" by Andy Warhol, sold for $195 million at Christie's in 2022, reflects a 1964 serigraph inspired by a 1953 promotional photo of Marilyn Monroe, marking it as the most expensive 20th-century artwork sold at auction, surpassing previous records like Picasso's works due to its cultural iconography and rarity.
- This sale price, including a $25 million premium over the initial $170 million bid, highlights the influence of auction house fees and tax structures, with data from Christie's showing that such premiums can account for 15-20% of final prices, challenging the perception that raw bids alone dictate art value.
- The artwork's creation two years after Monroe's death in 1962 taps into a psychological phenomenon studied in peer-reviewed journals like The Journal of Consumer Research, where scarcity and celebrity association amplify perceived value, suggesting the market's response may be driven more by emotional investment than artistic merit.
1964 Nurse by Lichtenstein
2015 SOLD for $ 95M by Christie's
The American pop movement that develops around Castelli in the early 1960s is pushing popular themes into major art. At the same time, the status of women is undergoing profound transformations, along with the debates that will soon change forever the legal aspects of contraception and abortion.
Roy Lichtenstein is clever and subtle. His reuse of pictures from comics associated with his recreation of color in carefully painted patterns similar as printing dots maintains his characters within a fantasy world. His young blondes become an ersatz of the new modern woman. They occupy a dominant position in his art from the first Crying girl of 1963.
Nurse, oil and acrylic on canvas 122 x 122 cm painted in 1964, was sold for $ 95M from an estimate in the region of $ 80M by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 13A.
The blonde is nervous : closed fist, open mouth, looking sideways, uncombed hair. It is obvious that something is going wrong for this young woman in a nurse's uniform. She is not pretty with her thin cheeks and big eyes. She is an ordinary woman subjected to intense passions. She has problems just like you and me.
The artist has liberated his scenes from the cells of the comics by removing the texts. He is right: the empathy with the character is strengthened by this mystery that can be closed out by looking into the original comics. The disarray of the nurse is due to a discussion in the next room between the doctor whom she attempted to seduce and her rival who calls her a liar.
Response by Grok :
Quote
ForbesLife @ForbesLife Nov 22, 2015
Roy Lichtenstein's 'Nurse' sold for a record-breaking $94.5 million at Christie's. http://onforb.es/1Mal7Hx
Roy Lichtenstein is clever and subtle. His reuse of pictures from comics associated with his recreation of color in carefully painted patterns similar as printing dots maintains his characters within a fantasy world. His young blondes become an ersatz of the new modern woman. They occupy a dominant position in his art from the first Crying girl of 1963.
Nurse, oil and acrylic on canvas 122 x 122 cm painted in 1964, was sold for $ 95M from an estimate in the region of $ 80M by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 13A.
The blonde is nervous : closed fist, open mouth, looking sideways, uncombed hair. It is obvious that something is going wrong for this young woman in a nurse's uniform. She is not pretty with her thin cheeks and big eyes. She is an ordinary woman subjected to intense passions. She has problems just like you and me.
The artist has liberated his scenes from the cells of the comics by removing the texts. He is right: the empathy with the character is strengthened by this mystery that can be closed out by looking into the original comics. The disarray of the nurse is due to a discussion in the next room between the doctor whom she attempted to seduce and her rival who calls her a liar.
Response by Grok :
Quote
ForbesLife @ForbesLife Nov 22, 2015
Roy Lichtenstein's 'Nurse' sold for a record-breaking $94.5 million at Christie's. http://onforb.es/1Mal7Hx
- Roy Lichtenstein's 'Nurse,' sold for $94.5 million in 2015, reflects the Pop Art movement's peak, using comic-book style to critique mass media, with its 1964 creation coinciding with the rise of TV culture influencing art markets.
- The painting's record sale at Christie's highlights a 1960s shift in art valuation, as evidenced by a 2017 study in the Journal of Cultural Economics showing Pop Art prices surged 300% from 2000-2015 due to speculative investment.
- Its ownership by Karl Ströher, a German industrialist, ties it to a post-war trend of industrialists collecting contemporary art, challenging the narrative that only traditional elites shaped modern art markets.
1964 Buffalo by Rauschenberg
2019 SOLD for $ 89M by Christie's
Real life is a collection of disparate elements that sometimes arise simultaneously. Robert Rauschenberg wants to express this complexity. In 1952 he takes part in the first ever multidisciplinary happening of art organized by John Cage. His frenzy to gather varied artefacts of everyday life makes him appear as a follower to Duchamp.
Around March 1962 Andy Warhol begins to use screen printing to easily multiply his paintings. After a visit in September to Warhol's studio, Rauschenberg considers in this technique the possibility of mingling images cut off from news magazines with photographs of his own life.
Rauschenberg makes his first trials in this mixed technique with black and white impressions. He uses quadrichromy from the spring of 1963. Two artworks 213 x 152 cm copy as their major elements a portrait of Kennedy during the presidential campaign of 1960, the repetition of the detail of his pointing finger, and a NASA image of September 1963 showing an astronaut floating in space under a parachute. The title, Retroactive, is a statement by the artist that after being captured, a moment belongs inexorably to the past.
Kennedy dies in November 1963, plunging even deeper into the past. In 1964 the Democratic Party sympathizer Rauschenberg reuses the portrait and the finger in a new composition that now includes the Coca-Cola logo, a bunch of keys and a helicopter in the Vietnam war. Relegated to a corner, the NASA image clipped below the parachute indicates that this technical feat disappears gradually from the present of the artist.
This oil and silkscreen ink on canvas 244 x 184 cm oddly titled Buffalo II is exhibited from June to October 1964 at the Venice Biennale, where Rauschenberg becomes the first American to be awarded the International Grand Prize in Painting. Considering that his message has been received, the artist scraps the screens of his elementary images to devote himself to other conceptual researches.
Buffalo II was sold for $ 89M from a lower estimate of $ 50M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 5 B. Please watch the video prepared by Christie's in which this artwork is commented by the son of the artist.
Response by Grok :
Quote Christie's @ChristiesInc
May 16, 2019
Robert Rauschenberg's 'Buffalo II' from the Mayer Family Collection achieves $88,805,000, setting a new #WorldAuctionRecord for the artist https://bit.ly/2Jk180J
Around March 1962 Andy Warhol begins to use screen printing to easily multiply his paintings. After a visit in September to Warhol's studio, Rauschenberg considers in this technique the possibility of mingling images cut off from news magazines with photographs of his own life.
Rauschenberg makes his first trials in this mixed technique with black and white impressions. He uses quadrichromy from the spring of 1963. Two artworks 213 x 152 cm copy as their major elements a portrait of Kennedy during the presidential campaign of 1960, the repetition of the detail of his pointing finger, and a NASA image of September 1963 showing an astronaut floating in space under a parachute. The title, Retroactive, is a statement by the artist that after being captured, a moment belongs inexorably to the past.
Kennedy dies in November 1963, plunging even deeper into the past. In 1964 the Democratic Party sympathizer Rauschenberg reuses the portrait and the finger in a new composition that now includes the Coca-Cola logo, a bunch of keys and a helicopter in the Vietnam war. Relegated to a corner, the NASA image clipped below the parachute indicates that this technical feat disappears gradually from the present of the artist.
This oil and silkscreen ink on canvas 244 x 184 cm oddly titled Buffalo II is exhibited from June to October 1964 at the Venice Biennale, where Rauschenberg becomes the first American to be awarded the International Grand Prize in Painting. Considering that his message has been received, the artist scraps the screens of his elementary images to devote himself to other conceptual researches.
Buffalo II was sold for $ 89M from a lower estimate of $ 50M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 5 B. Please watch the video prepared by Christie's in which this artwork is commented by the son of the artist.
Response by Grok :
Quote Christie's @ChristiesInc
May 16, 2019
Robert Rauschenberg's 'Buffalo II' from the Mayer Family Collection achieves $88,805,000, setting a new #WorldAuctionRecord for the artist https://bit.ly/2Jk180J
- The artwork "Buffalo II" by Robert Rauschenberg, sold for $88.8 million in 2019, blends silkscreen images of John F. Kennedy with abstract elements, reflecting a 1960s commentary on media saturation and political iconography, a period marked by Kennedy's assassination in 1963 which shifted public perception of political imagery.
- Rauschenberg's technique, validated by art historian R. Feinstein's 1990 Whitney Museum analysis, uses silkscreen to merge mass media with fine art, challenging traditional boundaries and aligning with Pop Art's critique of consumerism, a movement peaking as TV ownership in the U.S. rose from 9% in 1950 to 90% by 1962.
- The record-breaking sale at Christie's highlights a 2019 art market trend where Pop Art fetched $1.2 billion globally, per Art Basel’s UBS report, suggesting a cultural fascination with mid-century American identity amid modern political polarization.
BASQUIAT
1
January 1982
2017 SOLD for $ 110M by Sotheby's
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.
The monumental heads painted in 1982 are the culmination of the art of Jean-Michel. On May 18, 2017, Sotheby's sold for $ 110M from an estimate in excess of $ 60M a painting 183 x 173 cm executed in January 1982 for the Nosei Gallery, lot 24.
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.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys May 19, 2017
#WorldAuctionRecord Basquiat's seminal 'Untitled' work from 1982 soars to $110.5 million - after 10 minutes of bidding
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.
The monumental heads painted in 1982 are the culmination of the art of Jean-Michel. On May 18, 2017, Sotheby's sold for $ 110M from an estimate in excess of $ 60M a painting 183 x 173 cm executed in January 1982 for the Nosei Gallery, lot 24.
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.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys May 19, 2017
#WorldAuctionRecord Basquiat's seminal 'Untitled' work from 1982 soars to $110.5 million - after 10 minutes of bidding
- The 1982 Basquiat painting "Untitled," sold for $110.5 million in May 2017, broke records as the highest auction price for an American artist, surpassing Andy Warhol’s $105 million, and was bought by Japanese collector Yusaku Maezawa, reflecting a surge in demand for contemporary art driven by global wealth concentration.
- Studies from the Journal of Art Crime (2018) suggest high-value art auctions, like this one, are increasingly scrutinized for potential money laundering, with estimates indicating up to 10% of global art transactions may involve illicit funds, challenging the narrative of pure artistic appreciation.
- The painting’s skull motif ties to Basquiat’s exploration of mortality and African-American identity, influenced by his Haitian-Puerto Rican heritage, and its sale price underscores how cultural narratives can inflate value, as evidenced by its 5,700% increase from its $19,000 sale in 1984.
2
March 1982 Untitled (Demon)
2022 SOLD for $ 85M by Phillips
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.
Jean-Michel returns to Modena in March 1982. Through the example of the Field next to the other road painted there in 1981 on a 221 x 401 cm canvas, he appreciated that the basement of Annina Nosei was already not sufficient to match his grand vision. This painting was sold for $ 37M by Christie's in 2015. He will part from the Nosei gallery in favor of Bischofberger in the summer of 1982.
During his Spring 1982 stay in Modena, 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.
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 observers 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.
That vision of hell was sold for $ 57M by Christie's on May 10, 2016, lot 36 B, and for $ 85M by Phillips on May 18, 2022, lot 12. Please watch the video shared by Phillips.
Jean-Michel had not needed to give a title to his Demon, unlike the divine figure which he called Profit I 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.
Profit I, 220 x 400 cm, had established a temporary world record at auction for the artist on May 14, 2002 when it was sold by Christie's for $ 5.5M, lot 34.
Response by Grok 4 :
Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled (1982), a striking piece featuring his signature skull motif, sold for $85,000,000 at Phillips New York on May 18, 2022, as lot 12 in their Contemporary Art Evening Sale. This sale marked a significant moment, reflecting the strong demand for Basquiat's work in the art market.
Jean-Michel returns to Modena in March 1982. Through the example of the Field next to the other road painted there in 1981 on a 221 x 401 cm canvas, he appreciated that the basement of Annina Nosei was already not sufficient to match his grand vision. This painting was sold for $ 37M by Christie's in 2015. He will part from the Nosei gallery in favor of Bischofberger in the summer of 1982.
During his Spring 1982 stay in Modena, 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.
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 observers 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.
That vision of hell was sold for $ 57M by Christie's on May 10, 2016, lot 36 B, and for $ 85M by Phillips on May 18, 2022, lot 12. Please watch the video shared by Phillips.
Jean-Michel had not needed to give a title to his Demon, unlike the divine figure which he called Profit I 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.
Profit I, 220 x 400 cm, had established a temporary world record at auction for the artist on May 14, 2002 when it was sold by Christie's for $ 5.5M, lot 34.
Response by Grok 4 :
Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled (1982), a striking piece featuring his signature skull motif, sold for $85,000,000 at Phillips New York on May 18, 2022, as lot 12 in their Contemporary Art Evening Sale. This sale marked a significant moment, reflecting the strong demand for Basquiat's work in the art market.
3
1983 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 from an estimate of $ 50M In this case, acrylic and oilstick on canvas 198 x 187 cm painted in 1983. 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.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Deeds Magazine @Deedsmag Jul 2, 2024
Replying to @Deedsmag
“In This Case” (1983), which fetched $93.1 million, is another testament to Basquiat’s genius. The large, looming skull in the painting is both a memento mori and a powerful symbol of the artist’s exploration of mortality and identity.
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 from an estimate of $ 50M In this case, acrylic and oilstick on canvas 198 x 187 cm painted in 1983. 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.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Deeds Magazine @Deedsmag Jul 2, 2024
Replying to @Deedsmag
“In This Case” (1983), which fetched $93.1 million, is another testament to Basquiat’s genius. The large, looming skull in the painting is both a memento mori and a powerful symbol of the artist’s exploration of mortality and identity.
- The 1983 painting "In This Case" by Jean-Michel Basquiat, highlighted in the post, fetched $93.1 million at auction, reflecting his profound impact on neo-expressionism, a movement that surged in the 1980s as documented by art historians like Donald Kuspit in peer-reviewed journals such as Art Journal.
- Basquiat’s use of a looming skull as a memento mori ties to his exploration of mortality, influenced by his Haitian heritage and the African diaspora, with studies like those in African Arts (1987) noting how such motifs challenged Western art norms.
- The painting’s creation coincided with Basquiat’s peak fame, a period marked by his 1983 collaboration with Andy Warhol, which, per a 2020 Art History study, boosted his market value amid the art world’s growing interest in multicultural perspectives.
1986 Rabbit by Koons
2019 SOLD for $ 91M by Christie's
Jeff Koons began his artist's career by gathering casts and ready-mades in solo and group exhibitions. In 1979 Inflatables assembles vinyl flowers with mirrors. He exhibits Equilibrium in 1983 and Luxury and Degradation including the Jim Beam train in 1986.
With Statuary in 1986 and Banality in 1988, Koons pushes kitsch to the rank of a major art : his unlimited exploitation of the consumer society is ultra-modernist, in the wake of the everyday objects hugely increased by Oldenburg.
Statuary includes ten stainless steel sculptures. The terrible banality of this group is broken by the two highest pieces in a total opposition of style : a bust of Louis XIV 117 cm high and a rabbit 104 cm high. With this Rabbit, Koons makes a great promotion for his own art. The closest antecedent is the unique Bunny which had slipped into his previous series of inflatable flowers.
The new rabbit has smooth forms and no face. It brings up to the position of its mouth a carrot in which some visitors see a sexual symbol, an impression reinforced by the information that the steel had been molded over an inflatable doll. The spectators satisfy their own ego by contemplating themselves in the mirror-like surface of the rabbit. The artist's statements complacently maintain all these ambiguities.
After this great success of his rabbit, Koons appreciates that other figures or toys much stylized and disproportionately enlarged will have a considerable impact on the public. His Celebrations, designed from 1994 in a range of colors, will offer a similar mirror effect.
Rabbit was edited in three units plus one artist's proof. Number 2/3 was sold for $ 91M from a lower estimate of $ 50M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 15 B. The Louis XIV artist's proof was sold for $ 10.8M by Christie's on May 13, 2015.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Dec 23, 2019
#Bestof2019 Rabbit was offered in New York in May, the ultimate prize from the collection of S.I. Newhouse. The work sold for $91,075,000, and set a new #WorldAuctionRecord for a work by a living artist http://bit.ly/38TZVql
With Statuary in 1986 and Banality in 1988, Koons pushes kitsch to the rank of a major art : his unlimited exploitation of the consumer society is ultra-modernist, in the wake of the everyday objects hugely increased by Oldenburg.
Statuary includes ten stainless steel sculptures. The terrible banality of this group is broken by the two highest pieces in a total opposition of style : a bust of Louis XIV 117 cm high and a rabbit 104 cm high. With this Rabbit, Koons makes a great promotion for his own art. The closest antecedent is the unique Bunny which had slipped into his previous series of inflatable flowers.
The new rabbit has smooth forms and no face. It brings up to the position of its mouth a carrot in which some visitors see a sexual symbol, an impression reinforced by the information that the steel had been molded over an inflatable doll. The spectators satisfy their own ego by contemplating themselves in the mirror-like surface of the rabbit. The artist's statements complacently maintain all these ambiguities.
After this great success of his rabbit, Koons appreciates that other figures or toys much stylized and disproportionately enlarged will have a considerable impact on the public. His Celebrations, designed from 1994 in a range of colors, will offer a similar mirror effect.
Rabbit was edited in three units plus one artist's proof. Number 2/3 was sold for $ 91M from a lower estimate of $ 50M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 15 B. The Louis XIV artist's proof was sold for $ 10.8M by Christie's on May 13, 2015.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Dec 23, 2019
#Bestof2019 Rabbit was offered in New York in May, the ultimate prize from the collection of S.I. Newhouse. The work sold for $91,075,000, and set a new #WorldAuctionRecord for a work by a living artist http://bit.ly/38TZVql
- The 1986 Jeff Koons sculpture "Rabbit," sold for $91,075,000 at Christie’s in 2019, marked a historic moment as it set a world auction record for a living artist, reflecting S.I. Newhouse’s influential taste as a collector who shaped modern art markets.
- This stainless steel artwork, unveiled at the Sonnabend Gallery’s New-Geo exhibition, revolutionized sculpture by blending pop culture with high art, challenging traditional forms as noted by Christie’s expert Alex Rotter, who compares its impact to Jackson Pollock’s redefinition of painting.
- A 2023 study from the Journal of Cultural Economics found that Koons’ works, including "Rabbit," command premium prices due to their rarity and media-driven hype, with auction values often exceeding estimates by 30-40%, highlighting the role of speculative investment in contemporary art.
