Basquiat (untitled) 'BAD'

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Jean-Michel Basquiat
Basquiat (untitled) 'BAD'
1979

About the Item

Jean-Michel Basquiat (untitled), 'Bad', 1979 Basquiat produced this original collage for the fourth issue of author Luc Sante’s downtown-art scene publication, ‘Stranded’ (New York, 1980). The work was constructed under Basquiat’s post SAMO alias, ‘Man Made’, and was originally given to Sante to be xeroxed as an edition. The work falls directly in line with the 'cut-up' aesthetic of the artist's Anti-Product Cards and mixed media collages of the same year. Whereby, Basquiat took a found photograph (c. 1940s) of 13 white businessmen, covered their eyes with marker stripes, cut out their mouths and jaws and pushed down the resulting tabs and filled the gap with red ink; wrote "BAD" in black felt-tip marker across the top, and affixed them to a ragged sheet of found grid paper with masking tape, adding a glued-on cigarette butt at the lower right of the photo. Medium: Mixed-media collage affixed to lined paper Overall Dimensions: 11.5 x 13 inches (Image: 8 x 10 inches) Unique. One of a kind. This is the master work pre-xerox. Provenance: Luc Sante Unsigned (annotation on lower left is that of Sante's circa early 1990's) Condition: The work is presented as originally constructed by Basquiat using found objects in fair condition; as such, tear to mid-lower left and top center; scattered soiling, surface and creasing marks; fading, edge-wear and losses to lined paper; minor wear to back-side. Otherwise, well-preserved and stored in an archival setting for the last 39 years. Hand-written "Bad" is likewise well-preserved. Literature/References - 'Stranded' issue four index (Spring 1980). Basquiat's identity is confirmed as 'Man-Made' midway on page (see image 7 in listing). - Printed Matter, NY (October 2017; see image 5 in listing) - 'Basquiat Before Basquiat' (MCA Denver; see Sante, p.54, or image 6 in listing) - 'Zeitgeist: The Art Scene of Teenage Basquiat' (Howl Arts 2018; essay: 'Stranded' by Luc Sante) - 'An Intimate Look at Jean-Michel Basquiat's Early Days' by Luc Sante (Village Voice 2/8/17) - 'Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat,' by Sarah Driver (documentary, 2018; features above referenced index and interviews with Luc Sante) Basquiat as 'Man Made', see: - Glenn O'Brien "Graffiti '80;" High Times, June, 1980 (p. 53-54); "Jean-Michel Basquiat who is known to many as SAMO, had changed his alias to Man Made" - Sotheby's S2 Catalog & Sale, "Man Made" (May 2013) - Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1981, the Studio of the Street (Diego Cortez; 2007 p. 80) - The Last Time I Saw Basquiat (NYR Daily 9/3/16; essay by Luc Sante) - Basquiat: Boom For Real (Barbican; Nairne, Buchhart & Johnson p.26) Intertextual References 'Bad' motif also appears in the following 1979 works: - "Stupid Games, Bad Ideas" (color xerox; see Basquiat: Boom For Real pg. 108) - Basquiat (untitled) "Test Pattern" (original drawing and xerox; see Basquiat: Boom For Real pg. 147) - Basquiat (untitled) "Gumby Is Bad" t-shirt (worn by the artist at Canal Zone 1979) Basquiat Cigarette pasting(s): - See Basquiat: Boom For Real pg.111, for untitled mixed media on cardboard featuring pasted cigarette butts. Businessmen This character motif appears in several Basquiat mixed media collages and post cards in 1979 (please contact gallery for further references). Basquiat was likewise obsessed with the JFK Assassination Committee at the time. Likely parallels to the aforementioned are possible. Related Categories Basquiat Postcards. Basquiat Anti-Baseball Card Product. Basquiat Mixed Media Collage. SAMO. Basquiat Xerox.

Creator:
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988, American)
Creation Year:
1979
Dimensions:
Height: 11.5 in (29.21 cm)Width: 13 in (33.02 cm)
Medium:
Mixed Media
Movement & Style:
Pop Art
Period:
1980-1989
Condition:
Condition consistent with original construction by artist.
Gallery Location:
NEW YORK, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU35432774921

Shop All Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Emerging from the New York City street-art scene, Jean-Michel Basquiat would become one of the most significant artists of the 20th century as he mixed hand-scrawled text, vibrant color, gestural brushwork and themes of social commentary in a prolific output of Neo-Expressionist paintings. Although his pieces always retained the improvisational energy of graffiti, Basquiat used deceptively uncomplicated motifs such as crowns and professional boxers to honor the majesty and power of Black men and place himself in that lineage. Today, Basquiat’s art is among the most expensive in the world, with his paintings regularly fetching tens of millions of dollars at auction.

Born in Brooklyn to a Haitian-American father and Puerto Rican mother, Basquiat’s parents treated him to regular visits to New York City museums and nurtured his early talent for drawing cartoons. When he was hit by a car while playing in the street, Basquiat’s mother gave him a copy of the lushly illustrated medical reference book Gray’s Anatomy. Later, human bones and body parts such as skulls and rib cages would prove potent as subject matter for his provocative and spirited visual explorations of social issues as well as his own vulnerability and the struggles he faced as a Black artist.

As a teenager, Basquiat spray-painted city bridges with friend Al Diaz, and their “SAMO” tag caught the eyes of local artists. He left home before he was 20, selling hand-painted sweatshirts and postcards in Lower Manhattan. Because Basquiat was homeless — sleeping in parks and girlfriends’ apartments — he couldn’t afford proper canvases, and instead transformed found materials, such as old doors and windows, with paint and layered paper. The works vividly juxtaposed a street-art style with forms inspired by Abstract Expressionism.

Basquiat’s first public exhibition was “The Times Square Show” in 1980, a landmark event for artists experimenting with the boundaries between the galleries and the streets, with pieces by Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Kenny Scharf and Kiki Smith. His art soon garnered critical acclaim as well as the attention of collectors. Basquiat’s first solo show was at Soho’s Annina Nosei Gallery, in 1982, with another that year at Larry Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles. His star continued to rise with multiple exhibitions in Europe, a 1983 feature in the Whitney Biennial and inclusion in a 1984 exhibition of painting at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. But he found that racist stereotypes persisted in press coverage of him, even as his profile expanded, and friends contend that he was exploited by collectors and art dealers. He battled a heroin addiction for years, and at the age of 27, Basquiat died from an accidental drug overdose on August 12, 1988.

Although it mainly spanned from 1980 to 1988, Basquiat’s career in visual art involved hundreds of paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints and other works. This included collaborations with Andy Warhol, with whom he created a series of paintings between 1983 and 1985. Basquiat’s art has been exhibited in almost every major art museum in the world, and in 2017 his 1982 Untitled painting was sold for $110.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction.

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