Untitled (Delta)
View Similar Items
Jean-Michel BasquiatUntitled (Delta)1982
1982
About the Item
- Creator:Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988, American)
- Creation Year:1982
- Dimensions:Height: 28.5 in (72.39 cm)Width: 16.5 in (41.91 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1062317442
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.
Find a collection of original Jean-Michel Basquiat art on 1stDibs.
- Nola AP (Dark Orange to Light Orange Rain)By BanksyLocated in London, GB"Nola" Dark Orange to Light Orange Rain, AP. Screenprint on arches paper. Edition of 66 artist's proofs comprised of six different colour variants, published in 2008 by Pictures on...Category
Early 2000s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- BARELY LEGAL SETBy BanksyLocated in Aventura, FLBanksy's Barely Legal is a set of six screen prints on paper named after the Barely Legal exhibition held in 2006 in a warehouse in Los Angeles. From the unsigned edition and each numbered 59/500 (there are also 17 artist's proofs). Published by Modern Multiples Fine Art Editions, Los Angeles, with Pictures on Walls and the publisher's blindstamp. Pest Control authentication certificates included. The Barely Legal Set includes the following: Grannies (22.05 x 29.92 inches) Sale Ends (22.05 x 29.92 inches) Applause (29.92 x 44.89 inches) Trolleys (22.05 x 29.92 inches) Festival (22.05 x 29.92 inches) Morons (22.05 x 29.92 inches) About the Artist: Banksy (British, born 1974) is a contemporary street artist and activist who, despite his international fame, has maintained an anonymous identity. Aimed as a form of cultural criticism, the artist often targets established social and political agendas with his witty illustrations produced with stencils and spray paint in cities such as New Orleans, New York, and Paris. “The art world is the biggest joke,” he said. “It’s a rest home of the over privileged, the pretentious, and the weak.” Although details of the artist’s life are largely unknown, it is thought that Banksy was born in Bristol, United Kingdom, c. 1974, starting his career as a graffiti artist in the city. Better Out Than In, Banksy’s month-long residency in New York during October 2013, featured a man hawking the artist’s paintings for $60 a piece outside Central Park. In 2015, Banksy opened Dismaland Bemusement Park, a temporary art exhibition that functioned as a theme park. After a 36-day run, its workers and materials were sent to the Calais migrant camp in France to build additional housing. Among the artist's most famous stunts include his shredded painting: When a painting by Banksy was sold at auction for $1.4 million in 2018, a mechanism was triggered to cause the artwork to partially destroy itself, resulting in a new piece titled Love in the Bin (2018). The ongoing question as to who Banksy is continued to reach the headlines when in 2017 Robert Del Naja...Category
Early 2000s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
$262,462 Sale Price56% Off - DISSECTED COMPANION (BLACK)By KAWSLocated in Aventura, FLScreen print in colors on wove paper. Hand signed, dated and numbered by KAWS. 93 from the edition of 100 (there were also 15 artist's proofs). Published by KAWSONE, Brooklyn. Fra...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
$34,965 Sale Price30% Off - SUPERMODEL 2By KAWSLocated in Aventura, FLScreen print in colors on Rives BFK wove paper. Hand signed, dated and numbered by the artist. Artwork size 29.2 x 21 inches. Custom framed as pictured. Frame size approx 34.5 x 2...Category
1990s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen, Paper
$55,965 Sale Price30% Off - DUMBOBy BanksyLocated in Aventura, FLScreen print & hand-finished watercolor on paper. Hand signed and numbered by the artist. Pest Control included. Banksy’s Dumbo is an extremely rare Ban...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen, Paper, Watercolor
$595,000 - PORTFOLIO OF WOLF SAUSAGE, KING BRAND, DOG LEG STUDY AND UNDISCOVERED GENUISBy Jean-Michel BasquiatLocated in Aventura, FLConceived in 1982-1983 and printed in 2019. Screenprint in colors. Each stamped and signed on verso by Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, the artist’s sisters and administrators ...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
What Does Jean-Michel Basquiat Mean to Us Today?
With a new book delving into his friendship with Andy Warhol and a spate of exhibitions examining his work through a contemporary lens, Basquiat’s powerful and poignant voice continues to resonate some three decades after his death.
An Inspiring Collage by Self-Taught Miami Artist Purvis Young
In 1995, the artist embellished a found poster of Martin Luther King with visionary markings.