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In Short
“He brought together street art and European old masters. He combined painting and writing. He combined icons from Christianity and Santería and voodoo… And on top of all that mixing and matching he added his own genius, which transformed the work into something completely fresh and original. The paintings don't just sit on my walls, they move like crazy” – Jay Z
Basquiat's Heaven and Earth
Within Victor 25448 is a constellation of the hieroglyphs, signature motifs, and graffiti imagery that defined Jean-Michel Basquiat’s all-too-brief oeuvre. One of the largest works on paper the artist created, Victor 25448 depicts a black figure, whose bandaged face and X’d eyes indicate him as the victim of violent trauma, in a cartoon-esque scene of brutality. Unlike some of Basquiat’s earlier depictions of racial violence, such as Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart), 1983, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, there is no obvious perpetrator: the circumstances of the assault are left ambiguous. Though the work’s central conflict is unclear, its imagery unequivocally represents a parallel to the physical and emotional hardships Basquiat faced during the final year of his life. Jean-Michel Basquiat in his studio. Photograph by Tseng Kwong Chi. © Muna Tseng Dance Projects, Inc. New York, Artwork © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York
Though the work can be read as a portrayal of Basquiat’s mentor and close friend, Andy Warhol, it is generally agreed to be a depiction of the young artist himself; specifically, it is most probably a portrait of Basquiat’s own fragility following Warhol’s unexpected death earlier that year. Supporting this consensus was its inclusion in the final exhibition of his lifetime at Vrej Baghoomian Gallery in 1988, where it was shown alongside other works betraying Basquiat’s existential grief after his monumental loss, such as Riding with Death, Eroica I, and Eroica II.
The present lot installed at Jean-Michel Basquiat, Vrej Baghoomian Inc., New York, April 1988. Artwork © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York
Corporeal loss is juxtaposed with a supreme state of existence in Victor 25448. The foreground of the picture is dominated by a beaten-up, bandaged figure, above which the thrice-repeated word IDEAL hovers—a negation of the symbols and imagery immediately below. Curator and art historian Fred Hoffman interpreted that “the placement of a repeated, large scale, pop-art-charged word juxtaposed with an expressionist-style figure suggests the continuation of the artist strategy implemented in the Basquiat-Warhol collaborative artworks.” Brutalized by conceptions of the “ideal,” the painting’s subject falls into a desolate land of violence, hopelessness, and ambiguity.
Perhaps the most central element in Basquiat’s singular lexicon is the human figure, which the artist used as a malleable iconographic device to coalesce art history, pop culture, autobiography, and the black experience. When discussing the frequent visits he took to his local museum during his childhood, the Brooklyn Museum, the artist told Henry Geldzahler, "I realized that I didn't see many paintings with black people in them."[i]"the black person is the protagonist in most of my paintings." – Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1982. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Artwork © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York
The state of the figure in Victor 25448 is a stark contrast to the victorious boxers that Basquiat depicted during his rapid rise to fame in 1981 and 1982, such as in Untitled, 1982, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. If Untitled is a portrait of Basquiat standing victorious at the one of the most promising moments of his life, Victor 25448 reveals the despondence that plagued him during the final year of his life.
Al Bowlly and the Ray Noble Orchestra, Little Old Lady, 1936.
Click image to listen on Spotify.
Like many other of Basquiat’s masterworks, Victor 25448 is named after a music record—in this case, a 1936 recording of “Little Old Lady” and “Now” by Al Bowlly and the Ray Noble Orchestra. Though bebop jazz constituted most of Basquiat’s collection of over 3,000 albums, his tastes were eclectic, spanning Bach to Beethoven to Donna Summer. In the 1980s, the record company Victor was reissuing 1930s British dance band recordings to unprecedented popularity—and the indisputable star of this boom of nostalgic music was Al Bowlly. The sweetness of these two songs forms a start contrast to the violence of the imagery of Victor 25448, in which the central figure—not at all victorious, but instead defeated—collapses backward, arms and legs flailing.
In counterpoising heaven and earth, Victor 25448 depicts two distinct yet interrelated strata. “While the lower portion of the work presents a narrative of an individual’s “fall” or demise, the top alludes to an elusive yet attainable state of being. The pictorial division in Victor 25448 is reminiscent of the same artistic strategy Basquiat employed much earlier in his career,” Hoffman elucidated. “Victor 25448 is an expression of the duality Basquiat returned to throughout his career, and represents the harmonization of pictorial strategy and conceptual content.”[ii]
The Anatomy of Victor
Though Basquiat began appropriating hieroglyphs from Henry Dreyfuss’s Symbol Sourcebook in 1982, in wasn’t until 1986 that these codes appeared as prominent motifs in the artist’s visual lexicon. Symbols and their corresponding definitions from the book’s “hobo signs” section feature in Victor 25448, such as A BEATING AWAITS YOU HERE, FATAL INJURY, and NOTHING TO BE GAINED HERE. A counterpoint to the IDEAL tags that float above, these very unideal messages pay homage to a language of street art spoken by a disenfranchised and underprivileged population.
The IDEAL tags are evocative of the logo of the toy manufacturing company popular in the 1980s, and reappears several times in Basquiat’s work from this period. One to revel in semantic ambiguity and wordplay, the artist was no doubt attracted to this tag’s myriad references: to actual commodities, to the concept of an IDEA (amplified by the nearby brain and trailing L), to the phrase “I deal” (in drugs, consumerism—or art).
Excerpt from Henry Dreyfuss's Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols, published in 1972.
[left] Jean-Michel Basquiat, Light Blue Movers, 1987. Private Collection, Martigny, Artwork © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York
[right] Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Ideal Ideal), 1987. Private Collection, Artwork © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Levitation, 1987. Salm Palace, Prague, Artwork © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York
Basquiat’s black subjects are always self-referential, and the figure in Victor 25448 represents a beaten-down Basquiat in the last year of his life. Emulating a KO’d boxer bandaged with an X over a blank eye socket, Basquiat is portrayed defeated—perhaps physically from chronic drug use or emotionally from negative reception of his art and the death of Warhol.
[i] Jean-Michel Basquiat, quoted in Henry Geldzahler, “Art: From the Subways to Soho, Jean-Michel Basquiat,” Interview Magazine, January 1983.
[ii] Fred Hoffman, The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York, 2017, p. 221-224.Basquiat & Warhol
Warhol unexpectedly died on February 22, 1987 following a routine gallbladder surgery. The tragedy took its toll on Basquiat’s health and state of mind, consequently revealing the extent to which Warhol had been his rock. The body of work he created following Warhol’s death, including Victor 25448 and Gravestone, reveal the existential grief that plagued Basquiat during this period.
Just 18 months later, on August 12, 1988, Basquiat, too, passed away at merely 27 years of age.
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol at Area nighclub, New York, 1984. Photo credit: Ben Buchanan / Bridgeman Images
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol: an unlikely pairing between the king of Pop art and the ’80s cool kid. Transcending differences in age, race, and background, these two artists forged a deep friendship and artistic kinship in the 1980s.
Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1985. Photographed by Michael Halsband © 2020 All Rights Reserved
- Jean-Michel Basquiat photographed in front of his graffiti tag, SAMO.
Legend has it that their first meeting was a chance encounter in 1979, when Basquiat spotted Warhol dining in a Soho restaurant with curator Henry Geldzahler. When the two properly met in 1982, it was Basquiat who was at the height of fame. Just like Warhol had ascended to art world fame in the early 1960s, Basquiat within the course of a little more than a year had been catapulted to mega stardom. - Jean-Michel Basquiat, Dos Cabezas, 1982. Private Collection, Artwork © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York
The two struck an instantaneous bond when Basquiat visited Warhol’s factory with his dealer Bruno Bischhofberger. After posing for a photoshoot, Basquiat rushed back to his studio and returned hours later with a freshly painted portrait of both artists, the famed Dos Cabezas. The work impressed the older artist so much that he famously remarked, “Oh I’m so jealous. He’s faster than me.” 
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol at Mr. Chow restuarant, New York, 1985. Photo credit: Ben Buchanan / Bridgeman Images
Over the next two and half years, Warhol and Basquiat developed an incredibly close relationship. Basquiat’s impetuousness invigorated Warhol, then 54 years old, who began to immerse himself in the Soho community of young artists and importantly returned to painting by hand upon Basquiat’s suggestion when they began collaborating in 1984.
Warhol unexpectedly died on February 22, 1987 following a routine gallbladder surgery. The tragedy took its toll on Basquiat’s health and state of mind, consequently revealing the extent to which Warhol had been his rock. The body of work he created following Warhol’s death, including Victor 25448 and Gravestone, reveal the existential grief that plagued Basquiat during this period.
Just 18 months later, on August 12, 1988, Basquiat, too, passed away at merely 27 years of age.
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol at Area nighclub, New York, 1984. Photo credit: Ben Buchanan / Bridgeman Images
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol: an unlikely pairing between the king of Pop art and the ’80s cool kid. Transcending differences in age, race, and background, these two artists forged a deep friendship and artistic kinship in the 1980s.
Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1985. Photographed by Michael Halsband © 2020 All Rights Reserved
Provenance
Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
Stephanie and Peter Brant Foundation, Greenwich and New York (acquired from the above)
Christie’s, New York, May 13, 2008, lot 36
Acquired at the above sale by the present ownerExhibited
New York, Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, Jean-Michel Basquiat, April 29 – June 11, 1988
Malmö, Rooseum, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, April 8 - May 28, 1989, no. 11, p. 50 (illustrated)
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Houston, The Menil Collection; Des Moines Art Center; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Jean-Michel Basquiat, October 23, 1992 – January 9, 1994, pp. 26, 266 (illustrated, p. 225)
London, Serpentine Gallery, Jean-Michel Basquiat, March 6 – April 21, 1996, n.p.
Paris, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Peintures, April 3 – June 12, 1996
Brooklyn Museum of Art; Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Basquiat, March 11, 2005 – February 12, 2006, pp. 148 - 149 (illustrated)Literature
José Esteban Muñoz, Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics, Minneapolis, 1999, p. 46 (illustrated)
Jean-Louis Prat and Richard D. Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Vol. 1, Paris, 1996, pp. 346-347
Jean-Louis Prat and Richard D. Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Vol. 2, Paris, 1996, no. 4, p. 152
Tony Shafrazi, Jeffrey Deitch and Richard D. Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York, 1999, pp. 274-275 (illustrated)
Jean-Louis Prat and Richard D. Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 3rd Ed., Vol. 1, Paris, 2000, pp. 334-335 (illustrated, pp. 334-335)
Jean-Louis Prat and Richard D. Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 3rd Ed., Vol. 2, Paris, 2000, no. 4, p. 259 (illustrated, p. 258; Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, 1988 installation view illustrated, p. 287)
Alison Pearlman, Unpackaging Art of the 1980s, Chicago, 2003, fig. 13, pp. 77 (illustrated)
Eric Fretz, Jean-Michel Basquiat: A Biography, Westport, 2010, p. 161
Fred Hoffman, The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York, 2017, pp. 108, 220, 221, 224, 226, 231, 250 (illustrated, pp. 222-223)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.
Property of an Important Private Collector, with a Portion of Proceeds to Benefit Art for Justice
Ο◆10
Victor 25448
acrylic, oilstick, wax and crayon on paper laid on canvas
72 x 131 in. (182.9 x 332.7 cm)
Executed in 1987.
Estimate
$8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for $9,250,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
Head of Evening Sale
New York
+1 212 940 1278
20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 2 July 2020
1
Titus Kaphar
Untitled (red thread lady)
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $187,500
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2
Matthew Wong
Mood Room
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $848,000
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3
Lucas Arruda
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $350,000
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4
Helen Frankenthaler
Head of the Meadow
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $3,020,000
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5
Joan Mitchell
Noël
Estimate $9,500,000 - 12,500,000
Sold for $11,062,500
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6
Christina Quarles
Placed
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $400,000
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7
Francis Picabia
Portrait de femme
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $350,000
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8
KAWS
COMPANION (DETAIL OF CROWD SHOT)
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,380,000
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9
Robert Nava
The Tunnel
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $162,500
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10
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Victor 25448
Estimate $8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for $9,250,000
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11
George Condo
Stump Head
Estimate $900,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,050,000
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12
Banksy
Monkey Poison
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,000,000
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13
Maxfield Parrish
Humpty Dumpty
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $740,000
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14
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
Shade of Black
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $250,000
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15
Charles White
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $800,000
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16
Ali Banisadr
Motherboard
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $572,000
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17
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (801-3)
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $3,680,000
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18
Albert Oehlen
Im Museum II
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $560,000
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19
Thomas Struth
Notre Dame, Paris
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $400,000
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20
David Hammons
Hidden Drawing (Jordan begins 8th season as No. 1)
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $181,250
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21
Julio González
L'arlequin / Pierrot ou Colombine
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $920,000
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22
Amoako Boafo
Joy in Purple
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $668,000
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23
Fernando Botero
Woman
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,004,000
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24
Donald Judd
Untitled
Estimate $550,000 - 750,000
Sold for $680,000
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25
Sturtevant
Stella Gran Cairo
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $620,000
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