Untitled | |
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Year | 1981 |
Medium | Acrylic, oilstick and metallic spray enamel on canvas |
Movement | Neo-Expressionism |
Dimensions | 172.7 cm× 261.6 cm(68.0 in× 103.0 in) |
Location | Private collection |
Untitled (Tar Tar Tar, Lead Lead Lead) is a 1981 painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1981. It sold for $34.8 million at Christie's in May 2014. [1]
Executed in 1981, Untitled depicts a regal warrior surrounded by texts and graffiti imagery that marks his "transcendence from the leading figure on the underground art scene to the established world of international art stardom." [2] The year it was created, Basquiat had his first solo exhibition at Galleria d'Arte Emilio Mazzoli and Annina Nosei became his first art dealer. [3] [4] Describing his aesthetic, she said his paintings "had a quality you don't find on the walls of the street, a quality of poetry and a universal message of the sign. It was a bit immature, but very beautiful." [5] Nosei provided Basquiat with studio space in the basement of her gallery, along with paint and canvases as he worked towards his first American solo show. [3] Art collector Anita Reiner, saw the painting while Basquiat was working on it and purchased it on the spot. [6] Reiner died in 2013, and the painting remained in the Reiner Family Collection until her heirs put it up for auction in 2014. [7] [8] It sold for $34.8 million at Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in May 2014. [1]