The Market's Most Wanted 2024

Jean-Michel
Basquiat

Jean Michel-Basquiat's brief but meteoric career produced works spanning Ancient Egypt and contemporary African-American experience, all depicted in his frenetic, pictogram filled painting style. If you’re looking for original Basquiat prints and editions for sale or would like to sell, request a complimentary valuation and browse our network’s most in-demand works.

Jean-Michel Basquiat prints for sale

x

Sell Your Art
with Us

Join Our Network of Collectors. Buy, Sell and Track Demand

Submission takes less than 2 minutes & there's zero obligation to sell
The Only Dedicated Print Market IndexTracking 48,500 Auction HistoriesSpecialist Valuations at the Click of a Button Build Your PortfolioMonitor Demand & Supply in Network Sell For Free to our 25,000 Members

Biography

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s art is explosive - defined by a visual style that combines childlike imagery with issues of race, culture and celebrity. Though his career was short, Basquiat’s painterly style, exploration of race and culture, and standout childlike iconography has secured his status as one of the most successful street artists and African American painters of the 20th Century.

Born in 1960 to Haitian and Puerto Rican parents, Basquiat was raised in the Boerum Hill area of Brooklyn and showed promise in his artistic talent from an early age. His mother encouraged him to draw and paint, and together they visited many museum exhibitions in New York. At the age of six, the young Basquiat was even enrolled as a Junior Member of the Brooklyn Museum.

Until the age of 15, when he decided to run away from home for the first time, Basquiat attended school sporadically and eventually left his father’s home at age 17 to be adopted by family friends.

All of Basquiat’s art - and success - was marked by his interest in graffiti. Still in high school, Basquiat began creating graffiti projects with his high school friend Al Diaz under the name SAMO. Throughout the late 1970s the pair painted cryptic epigrams across Manhattan’s Lower East side, phrases such 'As if the oppressor was never a child As if heroin was never a flower.'

Despite the artist’s later reflection that SAMO was 'just teenage stuff,' a 1978 article on the duo in the Village Voice and the Soho Times saw SAMO thrust into the spotlight. This allowed Basquiat to enter the circles of avant-garde artists and celebrities such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, both of whom expressed a real interest in the quippy, yet critical tone of SAMO and Basquiat’s solo work.

In 1981, Mudd Club co-founder Diego Cortez hung Basquiat’s work in the 'New York/New Wave' show at MOMA, which propelled the artist to fame despite being known at the time largely for his street art. From that moment, Basquiat's career sky-rocketed. Following the attention he gained from publications related to this show, Basquiat sold ten paintings to Italian art dealer Emilio Mazzoli that same year. He also sold his first painting Cadillac Moon (1981) to Blondie singer Debbie Harry for $200 and also starred in the video for their song 'Rapture'. In 1982 he became the youngest artist ever (aged only 21) to take part in Documenta in Kassel, Germany, and in 1983 he was the youngest artist to exhibit in the Whitney Biennial exhibition of Contemporary Art at 22. Despite his premature death at 27, Basquiat's work changed forever the course of art history.

Untitled by Jean-Michel Basquiat

Untitled © Jean-Michel Basquiat 1982

1. £85.6M for Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled

On May 8, 1984, collectors Jerry and Emily Spiegel purchased Basquiat's Untitled (1982) at Christie's for $19,000 (USD). Fast forward to May 18, 2017, the same artwork reappeared at Sotheby's. This artwork sparked an intense bidding war lasting over 10 minutes. With an opening obid of $57 million (USD) the piece eventually sold for a staggering $110.5 million (USD) (£85.6 million GBP), setting a remarkable record for Basquiat and American artists. Renowned Basquiat collector and billionaire, Yusaku Maezawa, acquired the artwork, openly expressing his affection for it and his wish to share the experience with others.

Untitled by Jean-Michel Basquiat

Untitled © Jean-Michel Basquiat 1982

2. £68.6M for Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled

In 2022, the art market witnessed the return of Basquiat's monumental masterpiece, Untitled (1982), a 16-foot-wide canvas created when the artist was just 22. This dynamic artwork features a commanding black demonic figure at its core, surrounded by expressive brushstrokes and drips. Part of Basquiat's renowned Modena paintings from his time in Italy, it initially sold for £39.7 million in 2016. In 2022, it reappeared at Phillips, achieving a remarkable final price of £68.6 million, a 1.5-fold increase from its previous sale, highlighting its significance in Basquiat's oeuvre and the art market's exhilarating year.

In this case by Jean-Michel Basquiat

image © Christie's / In this case © Jean-Michel Basquiat 1983

3. £65.7M for Jean-Michel Basquiat's In this Case

Curator Fred Hoffman wrote that what drew Basquiat to depicting the human form was, “his fascination with the face as a passageway from exterior physical presence into the hidden realities of man’s psychological and mental realms.’’ The artist's monumental work In This Case (1983) is a testament to this.

Painted when Basquiat was just 22, there is a sense of immediacy and urgency here, amplified by the deep palette, jagged linework and overlapping sketches that have become so associated with the artist's style. In this Case sold for £65.7 million at Christie’s New York in May 2021.

El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) by Jean-Michel Basquiat

Image © Christie's / El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) © Jean-Michel Basquiat 1983

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT GUIDES