About the Writer: Fred Hoffman, PhD, is an art historian, curator, and author of The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2017). In 1982, he founded New City Editions in Venice, California, where he worked closely with Basquiat and other prominent artists, producing both unique and editioned works. Hoffman played a pivotal role in arranging Basquiat’s debut European museum exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh in 1984, and in securing the first acquisition of the artist’s work by a major museum—New York’s Museum of Modern Art—that same year. He also co-curated Basquiat, the acclaimed 2005–2006 retrospective that opened at the Brooklyn Museum and traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In 2024, Hoffman collaborated on Made on Market Street with Larry Gagosian at Gagosian Beverly Hills, the first exhibition focused on Basquiat’s works produced in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
“I’m not a real person. I’m a legend.”
—Jean-Michel Basquiat
Throughout his short career, Jean-Michel Basquiat used his pictorial activity as his means of expressing the personal journey of a young Black male in a white-dominated contemporary art world. Equally, and what makes Basquiat’s creative contribution so meaningful, was his ability to maintain an impactful expression of his own life, and at the same time present a larger “world view,” consistent with the thinking and contributions of the great minds, both past and present.
Self-Portrait, executed in 1983, is one of Basquiat’s most unique and distinguished self-portraits.i Basquiat’s Self-Portrait is actually a double self-portrait. This in itself sets it apart from the artist’s other depictions of himself. This work, like most of Basquiat’s self-portraiture, does not closely capture his actual appearance. While the manner in which the artist rendered his dreadlocks expresses the way in which Basquiat sometimes wore his hair, other features, such as the eyes, mouth and nose, are for the most part rendered without concern for physiognomic accuracy. Not invoking the memory of someone we might know; Basquiat’s double Self-Portrait presents the viewer with something raw and visceral. And as will become evident, while Basquiat’s self-portraits initially reference his body and emotions, over time they allude to a more internal state of being, the life of his soul.
In the double Self-Portrait, Basquiat confronts the viewer through the direct, frontal positioning of the heads. They feel flattened, neither tactile nor corporeal. Rather than receding into a background space, they project out into our space. Further flattening the picture, the artist has surrounded each head image with paper collage, an inherently two-dimensional material. Like a Renaissance altarpiece, the screwing of actual metal hinges onto the front of the painting not only asserts the joining of three separate panels, but equally proclaims the “here and now” of our experience.
The immediacy of Basquiat’s self-depiction is further enhanced by the way in which both eyes and mouth are portrayed. Not inviting us to gaze within a physical mass, these primary facial features are presented as white cavities, as if beaming rays of light out toward the viewer. The contrast Basquiat establishes between the two heads is also important. While we confront a full head on the right, the left head is partially covered over with paper collage. Additionally, the left head includes a partially open mouth, with red vertical marks depicting teeth. The left head is particularly important. Basquiat’s application of paper collage enables him to cut into to his image of himself, suggesting that the figure has been assaulted or attacked.
“[Basquiat’s paintings] speak of dread, of terror, of being torn apart… commodified, appropriated… the black body as Basquiat shows it is incomplete, not fulfilled, never a full image.”
—Bell HooksAt the same time, Basquiat softens the impact of his images, making them less an act of confrontation. This is partially achieved by the artist surrounding the two heads with subtly modulated passages of white paint, as well as the bonding agent holding the pieces of paper collage in place. Basquiat’s brushwork and gluing techniques should not be thought of as random or casual. They demonstrate the artist’s understanding of how to guide our engagement. Further, Basquiat places to the side of the left-positioned head the repeated name “BENWEBSTER;” and a compendium of titles from songs by Thelonious Monk alongside the head to our right. These references tie the artist’s depictions of himself to two Black musical masters—Ben Webster, distinguished American saxophonist, and legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. In so doing, Basquiat literally positions himself in the midst of two meaningful cultural figures.
The painting signals the artist moving away from more naturalistic renderings of himself. The self-portraits painted in the year before this work were different. While only marginally concerned with physiognomic accuracy, they nonetheless capture aspects of the artist’s physical state of being. Basquiat’s double Self-Portrait introduces his audience to a new type of self-portrayal, now conveying the feeling of being removed, even isolated from the world which was beginning to acknowledge his talents and success. The composition is more conceptually driven, a symbolic expression of his alienation in the contemporary art world.
“He belongs to a black tradition [...] of making work that is heady enough to confound academics and hip enough to capture the attention span of the hip-hop nation.”
—Greg Tate
Approximately one year prior to the realization of the double Self-Portrait, Basquiat produced as many as 10 self-portraits, marking the year 1982 as the artist’s most concentrated focus on this subject. The following year, in addition to this painting, Basquiat executed 5 additional self-portraits, four of which share the basic features of his double Self-Portrait; followed by three self-portraits in 1984 and one in 1985. For this accounting I am only considering works in which there is little or no question as to the subject being portrayed. There are no important paintings which could be considered a self-portrait dating from the last three years of Basquiat’s life.
1982 self-portraits include Self Portrait as a Heel, 1982, Self Portrait as a Heel, Part II, 1982, and Self Portrait with Suzanne, 1982. In the first two works Basquiat depicts an intense, expressionistic, and to a lesser degree, naturalistic portrayal of himself. There are other self-portraits from 1982. I single out these three works as Basquiat titled each “Self-Portrait.”
Both Self Portrait as a Heel and Self Portrait as a Heel, Part II present a highly energized and emotionally engaged person. While neither work captures the easily recognizable features of Jean-Michel Basquiat, we feel comfortable accepting that the artist has, in fact, painted himself. And in Basquiat’s hair rendering, he does capture a very specific feature of his persona. In Self Portrait with Suzanne, Basquiat draws himself alongside his muse and lover Suzanne Mallouk. Neither figure resembles Jean-Michel or Suzanne. It is the narrative content of the work—the side-by-side depiction of two highly animated, physically as well as energetically connected figures, that establishes the subject matter of the work.ii
The works thus far presented are indisputably self-portraits. I would include a few other paintings as definitive depictions of the artist. While Basquiat did not title any of the following works “Self-Portrait,” each has become commonly considered as a painting in which Basquiat represented himself.
Untitled, 1982 is the artist’s most heroic depiction of himself, a work on canvas measuring 76 x 94 inches. Here, Basquiat is shown as a towering warrior. With spear in hand, the pose and gesture of Basquiat’s figure exudes power and authority as he makes his way through an amorphous cityscape. In Untitled, 1983 Basquiat depicts himself as an oracle, spewing from his mouth, his thoughts and inner musings, including references to his own life and a vast array of seemingly random and disparate cultural as well as historical references.iii From the time of its creation, Two Heads on Gold has been considered a portrayal of the artist. In both heads, the rendering of wide-open eyes and mouth, as well as animated, upward thrusting dreadlocks, link these images to the self-portraits titled as such by the artist.
Dos Cabezas, 1982, depicts the artist and Andy Warhol. In this work Basquiat has simplified his features, almost rendering himself as a caricature-like illustration. In fact, the work was Basquiat’s spontaneous response to Warhol having photographed the younger artist during a lunchtime studio visit. Having been presented with a polaroid photo, Basquiat rushed back to his own studio, returning less than an hour later with this work in hand. And causing Andy Warhol to comment “here is an artist “faster than myself!”
In the following year, 1983, Basquiat made two paintings, each including an image of himself. Both Hollywood Africans and Hollywood Africans in front of the Chinese Theater with Footprints of Movie Stars, depict the artist, alongside fellow artists Ramel Z and Toxic. Both works memorialize Basquiat’s trip to Los Angeles with his two companions, celebrating the opening of his exhibition at the Larry Gagosian Gallery in West Hollywood.
From this formative moment in Basquiat’s career, one other highly recognized painting, included in all the retrospective exhibitions, warrants mention. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict, 1982 most probably includes an image of Basquiat. But foremost the work is Basquiat’s homage to graffiti culture and specifically Keith Haring’s subway drawings- the works Haring executed directly onto the advertising panels on the side of New York City subway platforms. These white chalk drawings, executed during daylight hours, and undertaken with considerable risk, required resolve and heroism. In fact, there is news footage of Haring drawing and subsequently being arrested by a NYC subway officer. As the street tagger known as SAMO ©, in the two years prior to beginning his full-time studio practice in late 1981, Basquiat also challenged New York’s laws and regulations; and Basquiat must have had himself in mind when he produced Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict. This work’s rich iconography and multi-layered complexity makes it one of Basquiat’s greatest achievements.
“[His art was] a knockout combination of de Kooning and subway spray paint scribbles.”
—Jeffrey Deitch
Slightly shifting gears, I draw attention to a very important earlier work from 1981. I would propose that Acque Pericolose, one of Basquiat’s first major narrative paintings, includes the image of the artist. In this light, Basquiat first portrays himself as an iconic Black male prior to his more concentrated focus on self-portraiture. In depicting a towering nude male figure with long flowing dreadlocks, Basquiat depicted himself as vulnerable yet possessed with pride and authority. This was not only one of Basquiat’s earliest self-portraits, but more importantly, his first representation of the mortality of the human body. Basquiat returned to this theme throughout his life, becoming one of the dominate themes of his late work.
In early 1983 Basquiat also produced an iconographically more elaborate depiction of himself, a full-length figure juxtaposed with an adjacent panel portraying both his personal incantation “To Repel Ghosts,” and his characterization of the passage from the material to the spiritual.iv
Concurrent with the above discussed self-portraits, and at the same time of Basquiat’s double Self-Portrait, the artist painted four other single head images of himself. All these works are similar in size and presentation. One of the four, which includes the additional numerical notation “1960”—the artist’s birth year—remained in Basquiat’s collection throughout his short life and is captured in a wonderful and historically important photo taken by Tseng Kwong Chi in Basquiat’s studio in 1987.
It remains unclear the ordering of the five stark, black and white self-portraits executed in 1983; and a reasonable question is where to place the double self-portrait in the sequence. And why did Basquiat choose to make one version a double image? I would propose that this was the artist’s initial engagement of this theme; and the doubling of his own image was his means of emphasizing the agony and isolation he felt from an increasingly hostile New York art world. Having returned from his five-month, highly productive and rewarding sojourn in Los Angeles, Basquiat was “back on the ground,” no longer 3000 miles removed from the New York art scene.v These haunting self-portraits are a key testament of how the artist saw himself as he reached artistic maturity.
“I knew he was great—he was electric. A tesla coil with dreadlocks—cool fire emanating wherever he went. Magic.”
—Glenn O’Brien
i The titling of Basquiat’s self-portraits remains a concern. Simply, many liberties have been taken with the titling of Basquiat paintings. While I would not limit the use of the title “Self-Portrait” to only those works actually titled as such by the artist, I would equally pull back from using this, when the subject matter is solely an interpretation by someone attempting to accrue additional significance to that work of art. And, of course, many of these efforts have been market driven.
ii I highly recommend the book Widow Basquiat, the wonderfully telling story of Suzanne Mallouk’s life with Basquiat in these early years.
iii Brian Williams, who worked with Jean-Michel Basquiat in his Venice studio at Larry Gagosian’s residence, captured the artist working on this painting in early 1983.
iv I have discussed this work in length in my text: Fred Hoffman, PhD, “‘To Repel Ghosts,’ Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Self-Portrait, 1983,” Phillips New York, 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, May 16, 2019, online.
v See Jean-Michel Basquiat: Made on Market Street, Gagosian, 2024.
Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Larry Warsh, New York (acquired from the above in the late 1980s)
Christie’s, New York, November 16, 2000, lot 37 (dated 1981)
Johnny Depp, Los Angeles (acquired at the above sale)
Christie's, London, June 29, 2016, lot 7 (dated 1981)
Mugrabi Collection, New York
Private Collection, Los Angeles
Acquired from the above by the present owner
New York, Robert Miller Gallery, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Works in BLACK AND WHITE, November 15, 1994–January 10, 1995
Milan, Mudec – Museo delle Culture, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Opere della Mugrabi Collection, October 28, 2016–February 26, 2017, pp. 50-51 (illustrated; dated 1981)
London, Barbican Art Gallery, Basquiat: Boom for Real, September 21, 2017–January 28, 2018, pp. 168, 291 (illustrated, p. 168; dated 1981)
Larry Warsh, ed., Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Notebooks, New York, 1993, p. 166 (detail illustrated in the front and back cover; dated 1981)
Richard D. Marshall and Jean-Louis Prat, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paris, 1996, vol. II, no. 4, pp. 56-57 (illustrated, p. 56; dated 1981)
Richard D. Marshall and Jean-Louis Prat, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paris, 2000, vol. II, no. 5, pp. 164-165 (illustrated, p. 164)
Joe Lloyd, “Basquiat: Boom for Real,” studio international, September 26, 2017, online (detail illustrated; dated 1981)
Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2020, fig. 51, pp. 76-77, 191 (illustrated, pp. 76-77; dated 1981)
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 from an Exceptional Private Collection
acrylic, oil, oilstick and paper collage on wood, triptych
36 x 71 5/8 in. (91.4 x 181.9 cm)
Executed in 1983.
Estimate
$10,000,000 - 15,000,000
Carolyn Kolberg
Specialist, Head of Evening Sale, New York
+1 212 940 1206
CKolberg@phillips.com
New York Auction 19 November 2024
22
This lot is no longer available.
25
This lot is no longer available.
32
This lot is no longer available.