Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement.
Paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat
Gem Spa (Basquiat) (1982)
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."
In early 1980, Basquiat abandoned his prolific downtown graffiti pseudonym SAMO (SAMe Old shit) in order to embrace his career as a painter. In retrospect he stated, "I wrote SAMO IS DEAD all over the place. And I started painting." Untitled (Gem Spa) was produced in 1982 during an important turning point in his career. Basquiat stated, "I had some money; I made the best paintings ever,'' referencing his work from this early highpoint.
La Hara (1981)
La Hara is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1981. The artwork, which depicts a skeletal police officer, sold for $35 million at Christie's in May 2017.
Jean-Michel Basquiat painted La Hara in 1981, a pivotal moment when he transitioned from street artist to an art world sensation. He began working in the basement of Annina Nosei's gallery in SoHo where La Hara was executed. Basquiat's early paintings from this period are considered his most valuable.
Untitled (1982 Basquiat skull painting) (1982)
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.
Untitled was executed by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982, which is considered his most valuable year. Untitled depicts a skull, composed of black brushstrokes with red, yellow and white rivulets against a blue background. It originally sold for $4,000 in 1982. It was owned by the Annina Nosei Gallery in New York, before being sold to Phoebe Chason, who sold it to Alexander F. Milliken in 1982. It hadn't been shown in public since it was sold at Christie's to Emily and Jerry Spiegel for $19,000 in 1984.
A Panel of Experts (1982)
A Panel of Experts is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. The artwork in part is Basquiat's depiction of a catfight between two of his lovers, Suzanne Mallouk and singer Madonna.
In 1981, Jean-Michel Basquiat began dating Suzanne Mallouk, a waitress and aspiring artist he met at Night Birds bar in Manhattan's East Village. He moved in with her and she paid the rent while he focused on painting. That same year, he made the transition from a street artist to exhibiting his artwork in galleries. They moved into a loft provided by gallerist Annina Nosei on Crosby Street in SoHo in early 1982; Mallouk moved out of the loft a few months later. They dated on-and-off until 1983.
Hollywood Africans (1983)
Hollywood Africans is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1983. The artwork is Basquiat's response to the portrayals of African Americans in the entertainment industry.
Jean-Michel Basquiat started as a street artist writing graffiti as SAMO, then became immersed in the Downtown art and music scene. He was in an experimental band called Gray, but he was also connected to the emerging Hip-Hop movement.
Taxi, 45th/Broadway (1985)
Taxi, 45th/Broadway is a painting created by American artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol c. 1984–85. The artwork sold at Sotheby's for $9.4 million in November 2018.
Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat were formally introduced by Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischofberger in 1982. Warhol was a renowned celebrity looking for renewed energy to revitalize his work and Basquiat had achieved recognition for his neo-expressionist paintings. Between 1984 and 1985, they created a series large collaborative works. As summarized by close friend and artist Keith Haring: "The paintings that resulted from this collaboration are the perfect testimony to the depth and importance of their friendship. The quality of the paintings mirrors the quality of the relationship."
Irony of Negro Policeman (1981)
Irony of Negro Policeman is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1981. It depicts a black figure as a police officer.
By 1981, Jean-Michel Basquiat made the transition from street artist to a gallery artist. Basquiat joined the Anina Nosei Gallery in New York, and Nosei provided him with studio space in the basement of her gallery where he created some of his most important artworks such as Irony of a Negro Policeman. The painting sold for $12.6 million at a Phillips Contemporary Art auction in 2012.
Untitled (Fishing) (1981)
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.
Jean-Michel Basquiat painted Untitled in 1981, a pivotal year when he transitioned from street artist into the adulation of the New York art scene. He worked in the basement of Annina Nosei's gallery in SoHo where Untitled was executed. The artwork depicts a fisherman wearing a crown of thorns and a halo of the same nature. He is standing at the center of the canvas proudly displays his catch, a large fish hanging at the end of a fishing rod. His black body reveals a white skeletal figure.
Dos Cabezas (1982)
Dos Cabezas (Spanish: [ˈdos kaˈβesas]; transl. "Two Heads") 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.
Basquiat first met Andy Warhol when he sold him a postcard in 1979. Later, when Basquiat was selling painted sweatshirts, he went to the Factory and Warhol purchased some. "I just wanted to meet him, he was an art hero of mine," Basquiat recalled. Bruno Bischofberger became Basquiat's art dealer and organized a one-man show in his Zurich gallery in September 1982. Bischofberger, who also represented Warhol, arranged a lunch meeting between the two artists on October 4, 1982. 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 was 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.Dos Cabezas, meaning "two heads" in Spanish, is based on the self-portrait Warhol took with Basquiat. The artwork ignited a close friendship between them which led to a collaboration on numerous paintings. Warhol used a Polaroid he took of Basquiat to create the silkscreen portrait Jean-Michel Basquiat (1982) using his piss painting technique. Although Basquiat and Warhol created several portraits of each other in the following years, Dos Cabezas is their only joint portrait. It sold for $7 million at Christie's post-war and contemporary evening sale in November 2010.
Untitled (Skull) (1981)
Untitled is a 1981 painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. An X-ray-like vision of the head's exposed upper and lower jaw accounts for its misinterpretation as a skull. The painting was acquired by Eli and Edythe Broad in 1982, and is housed at The Broad museum in Los Angeles.
. Unlike most of his pieces which were completed exuberantly within a few days, Untitled remained unfinished for several months as Basquiat stalled its completion. Art historian Fred Hoffman's description alludes to a vision Basquiat may have conjured in the studio: "One can only speculate about the reasons for this hesitation, but several individuals close to the artist—including myself and Annina Nosei, the artist’s dealer at the time—suspect that this young, unseasoned artist hesitated to complete the work because he was caught off guard, possibly even frightened, by the power and energy emanating from this unexpected image."
Dustheads (1982)
Dustheads is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. In May 2013, it sold for $48.8 million at Christie's, which at the time was a record high for a Basquiat painting sold at auction.
Dustheads depicts two drug addicts on angel dust as frenetic radiant characters immersed in black backdrop. The painting was previously in the collection of Tiqui Atencio, who purchased it from art dealer Tony Shafrazi in 1996.
Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (1982)
Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. The artwork, which depicts a boy with a dog, is among the most expensive paintings ever purchased. It was purchased for over $100 million in 2020, becoming Basquiat's second most expensive painting following Untitled (1982), which was sold for $110.5 million in 2017.
Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump was executed by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982, which is considered his landmark year. Reflecting on that period in an interview with The New York Times in 1985, Basquiat said: "I had some money, I made the best paintings ever." Measuring at nearly 14 feet wide and 8 feet high, the painting depicts a skeletal black boy and dog painted in similar style. The figures occupy the center of the canvas in the spray of an open fire hydrant. Johnny pump is a New York slang term for a fire hydrant that is open in the summer for kids to play in the water. The warm colors suggest a "blazing hot summer landscape."