尚·米榭·巴斯基亞

Galleria d'Arte Emilio Mazzoli, Modena

Alessandro Grassi, Milan (acquired directly from the above in 1981)

Thence by descent to the present owner

Modena, Galleria d'Arte Emilio Mazzoli, SAMO, 1981

Rome, Chiostro del Bramante, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Dipinti, 2002, p. 68, illustrated in colour

Mantua, Palazzo Te, Bambini nel tempo: L'infanzia e l'arte, 2004, p. LII, illustrated in colour

Prato, Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci Prato, Live! L'Arte Incontra il Rock, 2011, n.p., illustrated in colour 

Achille Bonito Oliva, Collezione Privata, Milan 1993, p. 246, illustrated in colour

Enrico Navarra, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Appendix, Paris 2010, p. 4, no. 5, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the yellow is deeper and it fails to convey the reflective quality of the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is evidence of minor handling in places towards the extreme edges and light surface dirt throughout, which is in keeping with the artist's practice. Very close inspection reveals some very minor drying cracks in places throughout with a small number of associated losses.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Untitled, 1981, is a seminal work from a breakthrough year for Jean-Michel Basquiat. It was shown in his first solo exhibition and is one of the very first works the artist ever executed on canvas. Still signed on the reverse with ‘SAMO’, covered in dripping spray paint, and replete with urban iconography, this work is heady with references to the artist’s graffiti origins. It is characterised by raw expressionistic force and unbridled creative energy; a prime example of Basquiat’s style at its rampant best. 

1981 was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s ground-breaking year. Never before had his work been considered in a formal art setting and in January he exhibited in a multi-disciplinary show called New York/New Wave at the new alternative gallery space, P.S.1. Even against the eclectic background of this exhibition, which celebrated the hip-hop, graffiti, and break-dancing cultures of New York, Basquiat’s work shone. Dealers, gallerists, and collectors alike clamoured for his attention and within a short matter of months, Emilio Mazzoli had organised the show in Modena for which this work was created. Thus in Untitled we join Basquiat's narrative on the cusp of a grandiose paradigm shift: from streets and subway trains to galleries and museums, from spray cans to brushes, and from brickwork to canvas. It is a rare example of the confidence and dynamism with which the young artist asserted his entry to the international art world.  

This sense of transience, of combining a low-art past with a high-art future, is perhaps most obvious in the execution of this work: the sense of fluency and immediacy is palpable. We might observe the punctuating strokes of spray paint, or abstract expressionist red and yellow brushwork or the trails of dripping white that run off the lower section. All around the canvas, muddily modulating brushstrokes violently blur with their immediate surroundings. They imbue the work not only with a sense of visual eloquence, but also a sense of quickness, verging on haste. This rush to depict is undoubtedly a hangover from Basquiat’s graffiti writing days. However, where in the past it had been a necessity to avoid detection in this work and in the rest of his oeuvre it becomes a trademark: an aesthetic language that is at once lyrical and aggressive, immediate and impactful.

Urban iconography rebounds through this work. The white, red, and black of the block grid background can be read as both a New York skyline, and a Manhattan street map. Basquiat also includes a primitively articulated car motif as the central subject of the composition. It is a form that recurs throughout his early work, and while it has sometimes been attributed to the car accident the artist suffered as a child, it also contributes to the metropolitan mood that pervades the canvas.

Some have interpreted this car motif as a cab. New York taxis held special significance for Basquiat: they were a symbol of his triumph and a societal indication of his evolution from vagrancy to global success. Valda Grinfelds, one of his girlfriends, said: "he told me that when he was taking a cab home from my place, he drove down Park Avenue. The sun was coming up and the Pan Am was still illuminated. He just said 'it made me feel like a king'" (Valda Grinfelds quoted in: Phoebe Hoban, Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art, New York 1998, p. 92). It would then be no stretch, to interpret the solitary letter ‘K’, mounted by a crown and positioned on the right hand side of the car motif, as a crudely figurative self-portrait; a roughly articulated approximation of that very moment in the back of a cab. Basquiat bestowed pseudo-royal importance on his new mode of transport and treated it as emblematic of his transformation from the spray-can wielding graffiti-writer, to the self-appointed, taxi-borne, king of international art.

This mood of triumph, transformation, and egotism is also central to Basquiat’s use of gold. Basquiat loved to compare his work with alchemy. Just as the mystical alchemist could conjour gold from nothing, his artistic touch could turn even the most primitive of forms into money and success. The gold panel in the present work serves as a focal point for this sense of self-aggrandisement: by scrawling over it in oil stick and spray paint, the artist asserts the ultimate value of his authorship and revels in the notion that his mark-making, previously considered vandalism, could even enhance the value of gold. The colour grew to almost magical significance in the eyes of Basquiat. In his own words "I was writing gold on all this stuff, and I made all this money right afterwards” (Jean-Michel Basquiat quoted in: Henry Geldzahler, 'Art: from Subways to SoHo, Jean-Michel Basquiat', Interview, Vol. 13, January 2013, n.p.).

Untitled is a true milestone within the oeuvre of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Shown in his debut, and thus most crucial, individual show, the canvas hums with urban chaos and exalts a traditionally ‘low-art’ mode of depiction. However, in its bold poetic voice and in its implications of artistic alchemy, it looks forward to a high-art future; it announces Basquiat as one of the most important artists of the Twentieth Century and asserts his right to the crown.