Acquired directly from the artist
Vrej Bahoomian Inc., New York
Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris
Sotheby's, Paris, Contemporary Art, June 1, 2011, lot 205
Private Collection
New York, Vrej Baghoomian, Inc., Jean-Michel Basquiat, October 25 - November 25, 1989
Paris, Fondation Dina Vierny - Musée Maillol, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Works on Paper, May 23 - September 29, 1997
Paris, Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Jean-Michel Basquiat - Testimony 1977-1988, October 2 - November 27, 1998
Maubeuge, Espace Sculfort, Art and Writing, March 27 - May 22, 1999
Berlin, Galerie Pictureshow, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Hits on Paper, July 12 - September 23, 2001
Rome, Chiostro del Bramante, Jean-Michel Basquiat - Paintings, January 20 - March 17, 2002
F. Pellizzi, G. O'Brien, Jean-Michel Basquiat, exh. cat., New York: Vrej Baghoomian, 1989, p. 97, pl. 36 (illustrated)
B. Blistène, D. Vierny, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Works on Paper, exh. cat., Paris: Fondation Dina Vierny - Musée Maillol, 1997, p. 23 (illustrated)
Jean-Michel Basquiat - Testimony 1977-1988, exh. cat., Paris: Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, 1998, p. 7 (illustrated)
G. Durozoi, K. Baudin, C. Melin, Art and Writing, exh. cat., Maubeuge: Espace Sculfort, 1999, p. 11 (illustrated)
B. Wedekind, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Hits on Paper, exh. cat., Berlin: Galerie Pictureshow, 2001, p. 3 (illustrated)
G. Mercurio, M. Panepinto, Jean-Michel Basquiat Paintings, Rome: Chiostro del Bramante, 2002, p. 58 (illustrated)
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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