Jean-Michel Basquiat | A Closer Look Through Newly Available Works

We are pleased to offer newly available limited editions by legendary artist

Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Basquiat was one of the first artists to successfully infiltrate the institutional art world with the outsider language of graffiti. As an artist he started from spray-painting the streets of New York with his collective, SAMO (short for “same old shit”), and ended up with a retrospective at the Whitney Museum.The artist's influence to this day is remarkable, and we are delighted to include the iconic works in this blog to our catalogue...

Head - Artist Proof, screen print on paper, 2001.

Born in 1960 to a Haitian-Puerto Rican family in Brooklyn, Basquiat grew up at a time of deeply prevalent racism in American society. His experiences of marginalisation and racism profoundly impacted his work, which often referenced outsider cultures and critiqued politics as well as capitalism.

Basquiat's interest in art started at a young age. When visiting museums he quickly noticed the subjects of Western art were almost exclusively white. He forcefully countered this imbalance in representation through his own work where he depicted his black idols and heroes (musicians, athletes, the artist himself) as the key figures in the work often accompanied by the artist's signature crown giving them a royal status.

The artist developed a distinct visual language from his early days which merged drawing, painting and writing. Among the most prevalent symbols of his works is the crown as well as the copyright symbol. He also often crossed out words as a means of drawing attention to them.

At eight years old, Basquiat was hit by a car while playing in the street. Whilst recovering his mother brought him a copy of the medical textbook Gray’s Anatomy. The volume’s detailed anatomical drawings were eye-opening to the young artist and sparked his interest in human anatomy, influencing how he later depicted bodies in his art.

The drawings and studies of Leonardo Da Vinci, were also a huge inspiration for Basquiat which he often referenced in his artwork.

In 1982, at the age of 21, he became the youngest artist to ever exhibit at Documenta in Kassel, Germany, where nearly 60 of his paintings were featured at the prestigious exhibition.

He met his friend and mentor Andy Warhol in 1981. Swiss dealer Bruno Bischofberger later suggested the two collaborate on a series of paintings, and between 1983 and 1985 the pair made works that layered Basquiat’s signature graffiti-like drawings over Warhol’s bright Pop imagery.

In 2018, his painting 'Untitled' sold for $110.5 million at Sotheby's, New York. The result not only set a record for the artist, It was also a record price for an American artist at auction.

You can view all available works by Jean-Michel Basquiat here or don't hesitate to contact us to request a copy of the artist's catalogue.

"I don't think about art when I'm working. I try to think about life."

- Jean-Michel Basquiat