Jean-Michel Basquiat

£16,000-£24,000 VALUE (EST.)

$29,000-$45,000 VALUE (EST.)

$27,000-$40,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥130,000-¥200,000 VALUE (EST.)

€18,000-€27,000 VALUE (EST.)

$150,000-$230,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥2,580,000-¥3,870,000 VALUE (EST.)

$20,000-$30,000 VALUE (EST.)

-6% AAGR

This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.

Auction Date

Auction House

Artwork

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

March 2006

Swann Auction Galleries - United States

Untitled - Unsigned Print

Meaning & Analysis

This print suggests a chaotic urban scene at night. A wolf-like figure stalks the centre of the piece, surrounded by an ambiguous edifice drawn in yellow line. A circle with the label of ‘moon’ hangs from the top right of the image. Stars, expressively rendered in frenetic lines, shimmer and sparkle on the right side of the print. A haunting figure stands with arms extended upwards on the left.

The humanoid figure, drawn in incomplete lines, is evocative of other representations of skulls and faces by the artist such as Ernok and Head, which are similarly characterised by fractured, clashing lines and clashing fields of colour. As Hunter Drohojowska writes of Basquiat’s depiction of faces: “Robotoid eyes roll back to the show that the brains are fried, there is no hope there seems to be almost no distillation or interpretation. It is as if the city itself crawled up on these canvases and stomped around. All the clutter and sleaze, energetically defined in crayon, spray paint, Xerox and chicken feathers.”