Michael Petronko Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Nevada
Private Collection
Casterline|Goodman Gallery, Aspen
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Anny Shaw, “Basquiat drawing to be auctioned as an NFT – and winning bidder will be given the option to destroy the original,” The Art Newspaper, April 27, 2021, online (illustrated)
Emily Dinsdale, “Winners of this NFT auction may destroy the original Basquiat drawing,” Dazed, April 27, 2021, online
“Basquiat NFT pulled from auction after sparking controversy,” Artforum, April 28, 2021, online (illustrated)
Trace William Cowen, “Basquiat NFT Removed From Sale After Controversy Over Original Artwork Potentially Being Destroyed,” Complex, April 28, 2021, online (illustrated)
Bryan Hood, “If You Buy the NFT of This Basquiat Drawing, You Get the Option to Destroy the Original,” Robb Report, April 28, 2021, online (illustrated)
Sophie Caraan, “Basquiat NFT Pulled From Sale After Estate Confirms That Highest Bidder Will Not Own Copyright,” Hypebeast, April 29, 2021, online
Nicholas O’Donnell, “No, you probably can’t sell your Basquiat as an NFT,” Apollo Magazine, May 12, 2021, online (illustrated)
Matt Fortnow and QuHarrison Terry, The NFT Handbook: How to Create, Sell and Buy Non-Fungible Tokens, Hoboken, 2022, p. 46
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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