Jean-Michel Basquiat - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Wednesday, February 15, 2012 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Robert Miller Gallery, New York
    CRG Gallery, New York

  • Catalogue Essay

    Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol were introduced to each other by Bruno Bischofberger at the end of 1982. Basquiat had already seen Warhol as a means of accessing celebrity and to become involved in the eclectic and artistic world established by Warhol and his Factory. It was not until 1984, however, that Basquiat began to spend significant amounts of time with the older artist.

    Many works from 1982 to 1984 show the influence of Warhol on Basquiat’s career, especially through the use of words and symbols. In the present lot, Basquiat represents his friend in the form of a banana, symbols that we can find in several of his works, particularly in Brown Spots (Portraits of Andy Warhol as a Banana), executed in 1984. The words that accompany the symbol of the banana, “HALF EATEN”, can also be understood as a metaphor of their coming together, the promise of an artistic reciprocity which predates their collaboration.

  • Artist Biography

    Jean-Michel Basquiat

    American • 1960 - 1988

    One of the most famous American artists of all time, Jean-Michel Basquiat first gained notoriety as a subversive graffiti-artist and street poet in the late 1970s. Operating under the pseudonym SAMO, he emblazoned the abandoned walls of the city with his unique blend of enigmatic symbols, icons and aphorisms. A voracious autodidact, by 1980, at 22-years of age, Basquiat began to direct his extraordinary talent towards painting and drawing. His powerful works brilliantly captured the zeitgeist of the 1980s New York underground scene and catapulted Basquiat on a dizzying meteoric ascent to international stardom that would only be put to a halt by his untimely death in 1988.

    Basquiat's iconoclastic oeuvre revolves around the human figure. Exploiting the creative potential of free association and past experience, he created deeply personal, often autobiographical, images by drawing liberally from such disparate fields as urban street culture, music, poetry, Christian iconography, African-American and Aztec cultural histories and a broad range of art historical sources.

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20

Untitled (HALF-EATEN)

1983
Oil stick and graphite on Arches wove paper.
76 x 56 cm (29 7/8 x 22 in).
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat signed by Gerard Basquiat.

Estimate
£150,000 - 200,000 

Sold for £181,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

16 February 2012
London