Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) - Leonardo da Vinci’s...

Photolithography of Jean-Michel Basquiat (*) High-quality reproduction of the artwork “Leonardo da Vinci’s Greatest Hits” (**) created by Basquiat in 1982. Luxury edition on Monte Carlo high-grade watercolor paper (300 g/m2). Print authorized by Artestar New York. Copyright of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Includes Certificate of Authenticity (COA). Specifications: - Support dimensions: 50 x 45 cm - Stroke/spot dimensions: 40 x 35 cm - Condition: Excellent (this work has never been framed or exhibited, and has always been stored in a professional art folder, therefore offered in perfect condition). The work will be carefully handled and packed in reinforced cardboard. Shipping will be certified with a tracking number, handled by the best transport companies. The shipping will also include full insurance for the final value of the work with full reimbursement in case of loss or damage, at no cost to the buyer. (*) Jean-Michel Basquiat was the eldest of the three children of Matilde Andrades and Gerard Basquiat. His father was a financially reliable Haitian accountant and his mother a Puerto Rican graphic designer of great prestige in her profession. Jean-Michel grew up in a fractured family environment; his parents divorced and, because of this, he had to change schools many times. He studied at a private Catholic school, later at a public school and finally, at 16, he enrolled in City-As-School, a school for emotionally gifted adolescents, from which he was expelled, for rebellion, a year before graduating. In his youth he came into contact with the city’s subculture, related to drug use and street gangs. In 1977, together with Al Díaz, he entered the world of graffiti, painting on subway cars and around SoHo, the New York district where art galleries proliferate. The following year he left school one year before graduating high school and left his home to live for two years on the streets, in abandoned buildings or with his friends in Lower Manhattan, surviving by selling postcards and T-shirts he decorated himself. He continued to devote himself to graffiti; his paintings and writings carried a lot of poetic and philosophical content, but above all satirical. The pseudonym of his alter ego shared with Al Díaz was SAMO (short for “Same Old shit,” i.e., “the same old crap,” with which they signed their tags and graffiti with cryptic messages. The use of this name was decisive in his life. These murals carried inscriptions such as “SAMO saves idiots” or “SAMO ends religious brainwashing, the politics of nothingness, and false philosophy.” An article about SAMO’s street writing published in The Village Voice was the first indication that the art world was taking an interest in him. The artist had several relationships that influenced his work; one of the most significant was with artist Andy Warhol. Also, in the emotional sphere, he was involved with several women; one of the best known today is Madonna. Lower Manhattan was the area where they lived at that time, and in 1982 they began spending more time together and going to parties at galleries. One aspect that united them: she says in an interview, “She was a big fan of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.” In 1988, exhibitions were installed in Paris and New York, and in April of that same year he tried to overcome his addictions and retreated to his home in Hawaii. He returned to New York in June, announcing that he had freed himself from addictions, but on August 12, 1988, at the age of 27, he died of a heroin overdose, becoming the most successful visual artist in the history of Afro-descendant art. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, in Brooklyn. Throughout his brief but intense artistic career he would hold more than 40 solo exhibitions and participate in around 100 group shows. Self-promotion and advertising demand were decisive factors for Basquiat, as they had been for Andy Warhol or Julian Schnabel before him. Neo-expressionism gradually prevailed over appropriationism, partly thanks to the economic boom that elevated the price of art and, especially, painting, and partly thanks to the support of galleries and collectors. However, critics were not unanimous in their assessment, and there was frequent criticism of the neo-expressionist discourse’s lack of theoretical basis. It was claimed that the neo-expressionist art they practiced lacked any political or social meaning, was merely merchandise, and therefore subject to the fluctuations of the market. Neo-expressionist painting was reduced to a consumer product and, as such, a creatively disqualified and vulgar act. (**) No subject is more powerful or coveted in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work (1960-1988) than the singular skull. For this enigmatic artist, the human head was more than an obsession. As suggested by the title “In This Case” (1983), the head is a box or cage that houses a cog-driven machine full of impulses and ideas. This work stands among Basquiat’s great achievements: a cranial abyss into which the artist has poured the contents of his visual imagination, blending centuries of stylistic influence. “In This Case” is one of only three monumental skulls that Basquiat painted. The painting’s intensity and immediacy are unmatched in Basquiat’s body of work.

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