The Artistic Language of Basquiat

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

From 1980 to 1982, Basquiat became famous in New York. The former graffiti artist produces large size paintings, depicting street characters and death. In 1983, aged 23, he structures his message in his own way to make it more political, to show the problems of Blacks, to better castigate the consumerism. It is no coincidence that he met Warhol in the same year.

He now expresses his violence on canvas panels covered with paper and hinged together in a kind of comic strip. On November 10 in New York, Christie's sells a typical example of such compositions, entitled Brother's Sausage, composed of six panels for a total size of 122 x 476 cm. This work is estimated $ 9 million.

Starting from the left is a big bad wolf dressed as Uncle Sam who claims the virtues of a brand of sausages. The story ends on the far right by the caricature of a coin, showing the ridiculous meaning of the word Liberty.

Between these two, there is a curious monochrome blue panel and other ones covered by xeroxes of typical Basquiat drawings, into a sordid mess worthy of the walls of bad neighborhoods in New York. The image of the central panels is shared by AuctionPublicity.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

This work was too intellectual, not quite spontaneous. Its quality of a polyptych was not enough to reach the expected price. Unsold.