BHM Artist - Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was a New York native, son of a Puerto Rican mother and Haitian-American father, who began in street art and assumed mythic stature after his death — influencing a generation of artists with his visceral, politically inclined works. Many of Basquiat’s works have been likened to the improvisational and expansive compositions of jazz. Often themes accumulate through multiple references on the surface, emerging as patterns out of gestural brushstrokes, symbols, inventories, lists, and diagrams. Most images in Basquiat’s works have double and triple meanings, some of which the artist discussed and others that he left undefined, remaining open to viewers’ interpretations. 

Before his tragic death in 1988 at the age of 27, Basquiat expressed seemingly boundless creative energy, producing approximately a thousand paintings and two thousand drawings. In this edition, we include his 4 most expensive works of art. 

1. Untitled (1982)  $110.5m
2. In this Case (1983) $93.1m
3. Untitled (Devil) (1982) $85m
4. El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) (1983) $67.1m (above)

Jean-Michel Basquiat, "Untitled," 1982

Basquiat mixed graffiti with fancy painting, showing that art can be both street-cool and gallery-fancy.  "What drew Basquiat almost obsessively to the depiction of the human head was his fascination with the face as a passageway from exterior physical presence into the hidden realities of man’s psychological and mental realms." The skull idea in Basquiat’s art might come from the Mexican Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) tradition.
Initially selling for $4,000 in 1982, this is now one of the most expensive works of all time, selling for $110.5m in 2017.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, "In This Case," 1983

In This Case is the last painting in Basquiat's holy trinity of large-scale "skull" paintings made in 1983. The painting is recognized as Basquiat's tribute to Michael Stewart, a young African American street artist in his 20s who died following his arrest by police in 1983. 
Combining the linear precision of Renaissance scientific drawing with the primordial gestures of ancient cave painting, the distortions of Cubist heads and the vigor of contemporary street art, the skull became a furnace in which Basquiat poured the contents of his visual imagination, melting together centuries of stylistic influence. 
Sold in 2021 for $93.1m.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat, "Untitled," (Devil) 1982

This billboard-size work (16' wide and 8' tall) has been considered iconic for Basquiat collectors because it features the devil image that appears throughout much of the artist’s work. The artwork has often been identified as a self-portrait depicting Basquiat as a devil, created in the year the young artist first soared to international stardom.