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"As a king rules by divine rights, so did Jean-Michel Basquiat draw and paint."
—Peter Brant
Basquiat on the set of Downtown 81, 1980-1981. Image: Edo Bertoglio © New York Beat Film LLC, Artwork: © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New YorkWith its gestural vigor and electric immediacy, Untitled (from Famous Negro Athlete Series) epitomizes the unbridled fervor that characterizes Jean-Michel Basquiat's early work and his singular graphic language. Executed in 1981, the work marks the pivotal moment at the cusp of Basquiat’s meteoric rise to international acclaim and was notably a gift to his dear friend, Kai Eric, who had befriended Basquiat several years before his claim to fame and shared his apartment with the artist for a time. During the artist’s lifetime, Eric temporarily consigned Untitled (from Famous Negro Athlete Series) to Basquiat’s legendary art dealer Annina Nosei, and ultimately brought it to Mary Boone just before her first Basquiat show. Having been acquired by the present owner soon after, the present work arrives to the public for the first time in nearly four decades.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Famous Negro Athletes, 1981. Former Collection of Glenn O’Brien, Artwork: © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York"He wasn’t out to get rich—he was out to win. He painted for the world title: heavyweight champion of the world and grandmaster."
—Glenn O’BrienA significant conceptual anchor throughout Basquiat’s oeuvre, the theme of the Black athlete appears in myriad paintings and works on paper especially during his early years, often referencing renowned contemporaneous figures including Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Hank Aaron, and Jackie Robinson. In Untitled (from Famous Negro Athletes Series), Basquiat brings together his own kind of Hall, or Wall, of Fame, scrawling baseball imagery alongside his well-known crayon hopscotch squares and ambulances. Here, Basquiat’s signature three-pointed crowns thereby potently showcase their trademark symbolism of autobiographically alluding to himself as well as recognizing the regal stature of his heroes.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Six Crimee, 1982. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Artwork: © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New YorkFor the present work, Basquiat xeroxed nine individual drawings he had made, pasting each onto the canvas and overpainting the collage like a downtown city wall at his disposal. With the vernacular dynamism of his street-poet, alter-ego SAMO©, the “HO”s and “OA”s at once evoke his frequent allusions to Hank Aaron’s name—as seen in works such as Orange Sports Figure, 1982—and the sounds of sirens that reflected the artist’s deep sensitivity to his environment. The suggested baseball diamonds at the lower right also recall boxing rings, further featuring Basquiat’s classic manipulation of his now-iconic signs and symbols through his exhilarating graphic intensity and unapologetic artistic sensibility that has come to define his extraordinary artistic legacy.
[left] Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1981. Private Collection, Artwork: © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York [right] Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Ring, 1981. Private Collection, Artwork: © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New YorkThrough his graphic lexicon, Basquiat at once transforms these respectable figures into canonized icons and renders their faces inscrutable, inciting a commanding statement about prejudicial stereotypes in society by “present[ing] so simply how society expected black people to be athletes and not painters.”i In the present work, Basquiat’s searing handling of the archetypal, mask-like countenances is as explosive as his gestural Franz Kline-esque brushwork in gouache. The free-flowing, liberal expression of energy seen in Untitled (from Famous Negro Athletes Series) is striking testament to Fred Hoffman’s words, “These images are...in an ecstatic state. Freed from worldly constraint, whether human or bird, they are an expression of freedom.”ii
"There would be 20 sheets of paper on the floor, all seemingly half-finished pieces of work, and he would jump from one, walk across five, literally walking on them!"
—Kai EricUntitled (from Famous Negro Athlete Series) is one of two from the artist’s titular series that Basquiat left for Kai Eric among a number of pieces. Eric first met the artist on a pre-winter morning in the late 1970s as he wandered the streets of Lower Manhattan, when he encountered a figure in the middle of the block. “I had started to see these oblique pieces of poetry around the city,” Eric recalled.iii “This figure I saw was Jean-Michel—he was standing there in an overcoat and I had caught him with a spray paint can in his hand. He was in mid tag. Al Diaz was with him. I had recognized his work from the streets and it caught my attention.”iv Soon after, the two would meet again at a punk rock concert at CBGB in East Village where their friendship solidified. “Jean-Michel walked in, sat in a corner, and we just talked. It was there we realized we were very like-minded and from there became best friends.”v
Basquiat’s street poetry was as nomadic as his living situations, and he would eventually live with Eric for about eight months in the latter’s place on Canal Street. In typical Basquiatian nature, the apartment became both a crash pad and studio, where he created, entertained, and produced a sea of work. Eric recalled, “Jean was prolific and would leave my apartment littered with his output. Every day I would come home to find a new array of works large and small. It was there that Henry Geldzahler first visited, bought a canvas which propelled Jean into his art career. Those are bittersweet memories.”
The year that Basquiat made and gave the present work to Eric would profoundly transform the course of the artist’s life as he joined Annina Nosei’s gallery and held his first solo show at the Galleria d’Arte Emilio Mazzoli in Modena, Italy. “When he first signed to Annina Nosei’s gallery in 1981,” Eric said, “his life changed practically overnight.”vi
Basquiat's New York
Kai Eric shares his insights with Phillips on his relationship with Basquiat, the flourishing creative scene of 1980s downtown New York, and Untitled (from Famous Negro Athlete Series). Read here.
i Glenn O’Brien, quoted in Jean-Michel Basquiat 1981: The Studio of the Street, exh.cat., Deitch Projects, New York, 2006, p. 19.
ii Fred Hoffman, The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York, 2017, p. 137.
iii Kai Eric, quoted in Tamra Davis, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, 2010, documentary.
iv Kai Eric, conversation with author, October 22, 2021.
v Ibid.
vi Kai Eric, quoted in Hayley Maitland, “American Graffiti: Memories of Jean-Michel Basquiat,” Vogue, September 20, 2017.Provenance
Kai Eric (gifted by the artist)
Annina Nosei Gallery, New York (on consignment)
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in May 1984Artist 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.
Ο◆25
Untitled (from Famous Negro Athlete Series)
Xerox, graphite, gouache and oilstick on canvas board
23 7/8 x 36 in. (60.6 x 91.4 cm)
Executed in 1981.
Estimate
$750,000 - 1,100,000
Sold for $2,450,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
New York Head of Department & Head of Auctions
+1 212 940 1278
aloiacono@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 17 November 2021
1
Shara Hughes
Inside Outside
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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2
Jadé Fadojutimi
My Umbrella Has A Nourishing Disguise
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $877,000
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3
Ewa Juszkiewicz
Girl in Blue
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $730,800
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4
Kwesi Botchway
Green Sofa
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $214,200
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5
Titus Kaphar
Fade With Time
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $816,500
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6
David Hammons
Puzzling Times
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $877,000
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7
Raymond Pettibon
No Title (Let him come...)
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $3,418,000
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8
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $11,870,000
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9
Georgia O'Keeffe
Crab’s Claw Ginger Hawaii
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $7,748,000
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10
Alexander Calder
White Moon
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,628,000
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11
Cecily Brown
Untitled
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $6,140,500
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12
Willem de Kooning
Composition
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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13
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,692,000
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14
This lot is no longer available.
15
Amy Sherald
Welfare Queen
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $3,902,000
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16
Francis Bacon
'Pope with Owls'
Estimate $35,000,000 - 45,000,000
Sold for $33,000,000
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17
Luc Tuymans
Wallpaper
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,250,000
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18
Pierre Bonnard
Panier de fruit
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $4,991,000
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19
Honor Titus
Linden Blvd Jazz Radio
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $163,800
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20
Matthew Wong
Time After Time
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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21
Avery Singer
European Ego Ideal
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $4,023,000
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22
Mark Tansey
Garden
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $2,934,000
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23
KAWS
THE WAY HE KNOWS
Estimate $850,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $1,542,500
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24
Wassily Kandinsky
Fliessend
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
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25
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (from Famous Negro Athlete Series)
Estimate $750,000 - 1,100,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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26
Peter Saul
Ice Box #3
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $441,000
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27
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (The Door)
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $8,549,500
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28
Emily Mae Smith
Feast and Famine
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $1,361,000
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29
Gerhard Richter
Weiß (White)
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $5,717,000
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30
Robert Ryman
Series #25 (White)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,421,500
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31
Frank Stella
Double Concentric Square
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,845,000
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32
Carmen Herrera
Amarillo y Negro
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $630,000
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33
Andy Warhol
The Last Supper/Be a Somebody with a Body
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $6,806,000
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34
Christopher Wool
Blue Fool
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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35
This lot is no longer available.
36
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Six PM, Malaga
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $567,000
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37
Mickalene Thomas
Portrait of Qusuquzah #5
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $504,000
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38
Mike Kelley
Memory Ware Flat #3
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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39
George Condo
Collision Course
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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40
Bruce Nauman
Untitled (from Fifteen Pairs of Hands)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $983,000
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41
David Hammons
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $3,660,000
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42
Nicolas Party
Houses
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $1,724,000
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43
Hurvin Anderson
Country Club—Mixed Doubles
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $604,800
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44
Max Ernst
Ohne Titel (les hommes ne le sauront jamais)
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $504,000
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45
Max Ernst
Kachina, le chien de Peggy Guggenheim
Estimate $280,000 - 350,000
Sold for $277,200
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46
Cy Twombly
Untitled
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $786,250
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47
Reggie Burrows Hodges
On the Verge: Green
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $567,000
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48
Max Ernst
Portrait de Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $176,400
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