Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) - Hollywood Africans...

Giclée print of Jean-Michel Basquiat (*) Reproduction of the work “Hollywood Africans” created by Basquiat in 1983. Luxury edition on Monte Carlo heavyweight watercolor paper (300 g/m2). Print authorized by Artestar New York. Copyright of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Includes Certificate of Authenticity (COA). Specifications: - Support dimensions: 50 x 50 cm - Stain/Artwork dimensions: 40 x 40 cm - Condition: Excellent (this work has never been framed or exhibited, and has always been kept in a professional art folder, therefore offered in perfect condition). The work will be carefully handled and packaged in reinforced cardboard. Shipping will be traceable and certified, operated by top transport companies (UPS DPD DHL FedEx). The shipment will also include full insurance for the final value of the work with full reimbursement in case of loss or damage, at no cost to the buyer. (*) Jean-Michel Basquiat was the eldest of the three children of Matilde Andrades and Gerard Basquiat. His father was a Haitian accountant of respectable financial solvency and his mother a Puerto Rican graphic designer of great prestige in her profession. Jean-Michel grew up in a fractured family environment; his parents divorced, and because of this he had to change schools many times. He studied at a private Catholic school, later at a public school and finally, at 16, he entered City-As-School, a school for gifted teenagers, from which he was expelled, out of rebellion, a year before graduating. Already in his youth he came into contact with the city’s subculture, related to drug use and street gangs. In 1977, together with Al Díaz, he entered the world of graffiti, painting on subway cars and around SoHo, the New York neighborhood where galleries proliferate. The following year he left school one year before graduating from high school and left home to live for two years on the streets, in abandoned buildings or with his friends in Lower Manhattan, surviving by selling postcards and T-shirts that he himself decorated. He continued engaging in graffiti; his paintings and writings carried a lot of poetic and philosophical weight, but above all satirical. The pseudonym of his alter ego shared with Al Díaz was SAMO (short for “Same Old Shit,” i.e., “the same old crap,” with which they signed their tags and graffiti with cryptic messages. The use of this name was decisive in his life. These murals bore inscriptions such as “SAMO saves idiots” or “SAMO end the brainwashing of religion, the politics of nothingness, and false philosophy.” An article about SAMO’s street writing published in The Village Voice was the first hint that the art world was taking an interest in him. The artist had several relationships that influenced his work; one of the most significant was with artist Andy Warhol. Also, on a romantic level, he was involved with several women; one of the best known today was Madonna. Lower Manhattan was the area where they lived at that time, and in 1982 they began spending more time together and going to parties in galleries. One thing that united them was her saying in an interview, “I was a big fan of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.” In 1988 they staged exhibitions in Paris and New York, and in April of that same year he tried to quit his addictions and retired to his home in Hawaii. He returned to New York in June, announcing that he had freed himself from the addictions, but on August 12, 1988, at the age of 27, he died of a heroin overdose, becoming the most successful visual artist in the history of African-descended art. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Throughout his brief but intense artistic career he would hold more than 40 solo exhibitions and participate in around 100 group shows. Self-promotion and public solicitation were primaries for Basquiat, as they had previously been for Andy Warhol or Julian Schnabel. Neo-Expressionism came to dominate over appropriationism, partly due to the economic surge that pushed art prices, especially painting, to high levels, and partly thanks to the support of gallery owners and collectors. Critics, however, were not uniform in their assessment, and it was common to decry the lack of theoretical basis in neo-expressionist discourse. It was argued that the art practiced by neo-expressionists lacked any political or social meaning, was merely merchandise, and therefore subject to the fluctuations of the market. Neo-expressionist painting was reduced to a consumer product and, as such, a creatively discredited and vulgar fact.

Stima:€150

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