| Jean-Michel Basquiat | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Andy Warhol |
| Year | 1982 |
| Medium | Metallic pigment, acrylic, silkscreen ink and urine on canvas |
| Movement | Pop art |
| Subject | Jean-Michel Basquiat |
| Dimensions | 100 cm× 100 cm(40 in× 40 in) |
| Location | Private collection |
Jean-Michel Basquiat is a painting created by American artist Andy Warhol in 1982. Warhol made multiple silkscreen portraits of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat using his "piss paintings."
In 1979, Jean-Michel Basquiat approached Warhol in a restaurant and sold him a postcard. [1] Basquiat later went to Warhol's Factory and sold him some of the painted sweatshirts he was selling. "I just wanted to meet him, he was an art hero of mine," Basquiat recalled. [2]
By 1982, Basquiat made the transition from graffiti artist to one of the leading figures in the Neo-expressionism movement. [3] Bruno Bischofberger became Basquiat's art dealer and gave him a one-man show at his Zurich gallery in September 1982. [4] Bischofberger also represented Warhol and arranged a lunch meeting between the two artists on October 4, 1982. [5] Warhol documented the meeting in a diary entry, which was posthumously published in The Andy Warhol Diaries (1989):
Down to meet Bruno Bischofberger (cab $7.50). He brought Jean-Michel Basquiat with him. He's the kid who used the name "Samo" when he used to sit on the sidewalk in Greenwich Village and paint T-shirts, and I'd give him $10 here and there…He's just one of those kids who drove me crazy. He's black but some people say he's Puerto Rican so I don't know. And then Bruno discovered him and now he’s on Easy Street. He's got a great loft on Christie Street. He was a middle-class Brooklyn kid—I mean, he went to college and things—and he was trying to be like that, painting in the Greenwich Village. And so had lunch for them and then I took a Polaroid and he went home and within two hours a painting was back, still wet, of him and me together. And I mean, just getting to Christie Street must have taken an hour. He told me his assistant painted it. [6]
This meeting established a friendship between them, "Warhol the established master of Pop Art, and Basquiat, the brash wunderkind of the New York art scene. [7] Basquiat created the painting Dos Cabezas (1982) based on one of the Polaroids Warhol took of them, and Warhol created multiple portraits of Basquiat from a Polaroid he took of him. [8] One portrait is part of the permanent collection of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. [7] American businessman Peter Brant, a major collector of both Warhol and Basquiat, owned one of the portraits. [9] In November 2021, Brant sold his portrait at Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale for $40 million. [10]
Jean-Michel Basquiat was created using a complex tracing and silkscreening process, using layers of colors of silkscreen ink on top of a background of acrylic polymer paint, applied to a 40-by-40-inch canvas. It is also one of Warhol's "piss paintings," meaning the colors were oxidized by evaporating urine. [11]
Warhol began experimenting with urine in the early 1960s, and in 1978 he "developed the piss-painting technique as a way of introducing a random element—an ironic paraphrase of the hero of Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock, with his drip technique." [11]
Warhol coated the canvas with copper paint and either he or an assistant urinated directly onto the canvas. [8] Warhol wrote in his diary that he preferred the "contributions" of his assistant Ronnie Cutrone "because he takes a lot of vitamin B so the canvas turns a really pretty color when it’s his piss." [8]
Andy Warhol was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol is considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, and filmmaking. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental film Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement.
Basquiat is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed, written and co-composed by Julian Schnabel in his feature directorial debut. The film is based on the life of American postmodernist/neo expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. It is the first film about an American painter written and directed by another artist.
Bruno Bischofberger is a Swiss art dealer and collector.
Philip Niarchos is a Greek billionaire, the eldest son of the Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos and Eugenia Livanos, herself the elder daughter of Stavros Niarchos' rival Stavros G. Livanos.
Shot Marilyns is a series of silkscreen paintings produced in 1964 by Andy Warhol, each canvas measuring 40 inches square, and each a portrait of Marilyn Monroe.
Untitled (Gem Spa) is a 1982 painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. It is an autobiographical work depicting a sparsely rendered figure atop a bicycle "drowned in darkness."
Untitled is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. The artwork, which depicts a skull, is among the most expensive paintings ever. In May 2017, it sold for $110.5 million at Sotheby's, the highest price ever paid at auction for artwork by an American artist in a public sale. That record was surpassed by Shot Marilyns by Andy Warhol, which sold for $195 million in May 2022.
Olympics is a painting created by American artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol in 1984. The artwork was a commemoration of the 1984 Summer Olympics. It sold for $10.5 million at Phillips's Contemporary Art Evening Sale in June 2012, which at the time was a record high for a Warhol-Basquiat collaboration. It is the second most expensive Warhol-Basquiat collaboration sold at auction after Zenith (1985).
Dos Cabezas is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. The double portrait resulted from Basquiat's first formal meeting with his idol, American pop artist Andy Warhol.
Suzanne Mallouk is a Canadian-born painter, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, based in New York City. She is best known for her role within a core of East Village creatives in the 1980s and for her relationship with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, much of which her friend Jennifer Clement chronicled in Widow Basquiat: A Memoir. In 2015, Vogue magazine listed Basquiat and Mallouk among "The 21 Most Stylish Art World Couples of All Time."
Crown Hotel (Mona Lisa Black Background) is a 1982 painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. The artwork cites Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Édouard Manet's Olympia, two canonical works of western art. In June 2013, it sold for $7.4 million at Sotheby's.
Untitled is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1981. The artwork, which depicts a fisherman displaying his catch hanging at the end of a line, sold for $26.4 million at Christie's in November 2012.
Taxi, 45th/Broadway is a painting created by American artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol circa 1984–85. The artwork sold at Sotheby's for $9.4 million in November 2018.
Zenith is a painting created by American artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol in 1985. It sold for $11.4 million at Phillips in May 2014, the highest price paid at auction for a Warhol-Basquiat collaboration.
Sabado por la Noche is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1984. It sold for $10.7 million at Christie's in 2019.
Warrior is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. It is interpreted as "a semi-autobiographical work championing his creative vision as a black artist." In March 2021, the painting sold for $41.8 million at Christie's in Hong Kong, becoming the most expensive Western artwork sold at auction in Asia.
In This Case is a 1983 painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1983. The artwork, which depicts a skull, is among the most expensive paintings ever purchased. In May 2021, it sold for $93.1 million at Christie's New York, the second highest auction record by Basquiat.
Versus Medici is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. The artwork, which references the Medici family, sold for $50.8 million at Sotheby's in May 2021.
