Banksy, Basquiat & More Must-See Street Art

All photographs by Jonathan Tasker.

Os Gêmeos, Untitled, 2009. Estimate $60,000–80,000.

Twins Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo make up the urban art duo Os Gêmeos, which is Portuguese for ‘The Twins’. Os Gêmeos’ work is inspired by graffiti and hip hop culture in their home country of Brazil. The present work exemplifies their quirky style with a colorful depiction of a boy between two window shutters. The boy’s yellow skin, symbolic of positivity, is a recurring motif throughout their work. Their work has been exhibited in popular public spaces, including Coney Island in New York City, as well as in galleries around the world such as Prism in Los Angeles, Berardo Museum Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art in Lisbon, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

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Contemporary Art Online
13–28 September

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Faile, War Profiteer #19, 2006. Estimate $12,000–18,000.

Patrick McNeil and Patrick Mille founded the street art collaborative and multimedia collective Faile in 1999. As Faile, the duo has produced collages, paintings, prints and sculpture in addition to pioneering new techniques in wheat pasting and stencilling. The pair has exhibited their work in the Tate Modern and the Brooklyn Museum, and has also created large-scale public works, including one featured in New York City’s Times Square.

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Contemporary Art Online
13–28 September

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Banksy, No Ball Games (Green), 2009 (left). Banksy, Christ With Shopping Bags, 2004 (right).

The anonymous graffiti artist known as Banksy is perhaps the most controversial street artist of today. He is famous for his stenciled graffiti works, which appear in public spaces around the world. His use of stenciling developed from a need to complete a work quickly, namely to avoid being caught vandalizing by police. Banksy often uses multi-layered stencils to employ multiple colors, and he frequently incorporates permanent environmental fixtures, such as street signs and architectural elements, into his work. Marked by dark humor, satire, and political commentary, much of his street art has become viral on the Internet.

Banksy, No Ball Games (Green), 2009. Estimate $15,000–25,000.
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Banksy, Christ With Shopping Bags, 2004. Estimate $15,000–20,000.
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Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York

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Keith Haring, Marilyn, 1981. Estimate $40,000–60,000.

Keith Haring’s aesthetic was influenced by New York City’s budding graffiti culture, of which he soon became a prominent part of. The present work blends his traditional style with the iconography present in the Pop Art cannon. By drawing on top of a mass produced print of Marilyn Monroe, a favorite subject of Andy Warhol, Haring fuses the ethos of the burgeoning Street Art scene with the legacy of Pop, the influence of which he would continue to explore in endeavors such as the Pop Shop and his working with fashion brands.

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Contemporary Art Online
13–28 September

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Futura, Business as Usual..., 1989 (left). Richard Hambleton's Untitled (Marlboro Man), 1983 (right).

Futura, Business as Usual...., 1989. Estimate $20,000–30,000.
Futura is the street artist moniker of Leonard McGurr. McGurr began his art career as a graffiti artist in the 1970s, and exhibited at the Fun Gallery alongside his contemporaries, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The present work demonstrates Futura’s technical skill as a graffiti artist as it translates to the canvas.

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Contemporary Art Online
13–28 September

Richard Hambleton, Untitled (Marlboro Man), 1983. Estimate $30,000–50,000.
Executed in 1983, Richard Hambleton’s Untitled (Marlboro Man) is an expressionistic investigation of iconic American symbolism, subverting the bravado of the Marlboro Man by incorporating that the figure into the worldof street art.

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Contemporary Curated
25 September | New York

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Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1986. Estimate $300,000–500,000.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, along with Keith Haring, was one of the key artists to bring Street Art into the mainstream art world. His works were filled with auric signs and symbols including crowns, skulls and arrows. “As viewers, we intuit Basquiat’s creative output is not merely the reflection of his personal thoughts, feelings, and passions. What Basquiat has put before us transcends the vision of an individual,” said art historian Fred Hoffman, “Rather, it reflects and speaks to more universal truths shared by all cultures, all peoples, for all times. The art of Jean-Michel Basquiat provides us with a means of learning about who we really are.”

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Contemporary Curated
25 September | New York

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