Basquiat painting sells for $13.5M at NYC auction

NEW YORK — A painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat has been sold for $13.5 million at an auction in New York City.

The 1982 painting, "Untitled (Boxer)," was consigned to Christie's auction house by Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica. Christie's didn't identify the buyer.

The painting shows a black heavyweight fighter with his arms thrust in the air against a white graffiti-filled background. It surpassed its pre-auction estimate of more than $12 million.

The current auction record for a Basquiat is $14.6 million for "Untitled," which sold at Sotheby's last year.

Francis Bacon's "Study for Self-Portrait" didn't sell. Christie's says it had been estimated to sell for about $40 million.

(This version CORRECTS that Basquiat was consigned by Ulrich for sale NOT purchased by him; corrects price to $13.5 million from $14M; corrects overlines.)

Comments

[kotexbarbie]

This Basquiat would look good over my bed! His work was great but kinda stuck in the eighties. As an artist it helps to live a lot longer than Basquait did. I'm sure his work would have evolved. He will never rise to the level of Phillip Guston. Guston was the Cezanne of our century.

BTW -- I make art on panties!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56119&id=35585056533
http://www.lucywhite.com/new_site

[TAIsabel]

As someone who had the blessing of standing in front of one of the first Jean Michel Basquiat's and was rendered speechless by its power, I salute whoever had the money and the guts to pay the $14MM at this difficult financial time.

Basquiat will go down in cultural history as one of the most innovative, intelligent and best artists of all times. The retrospective of his work at the Whitney Museum in NY stands out, for me, as one of the best things I have ever witnessed.

[AnalyzeIT]

This piece of work by Jean-Michel Basquiat reminds me of an individual impatient with anything other than the most direct route to a goal, it's much like the work of Jackson Pollock and Jackson was a very impatient man.

Either way wish this piece had been mine too sell. :)

[kotexbarbie]

He was very young and very talented. No , Jackson Pollack was completely immersed and an artist who matured. You wish the the painting was yours to sell but you would never have bought it directly from the Artist at a dirt cheap price.

[Luca]

Great price for a rather mid-level quality Basquiat. The subject matter helped. I think that Black art is now 'in fashion.'

[WilliePilgrim]

In defense of the artwork, whether commentors here like it or not, or think it's beautiful or ugly, it makes no difference. Basquiat's work is the work of an artist that will be noted for some time to come. Other artists, those who are involved with creating art in the modern concept, in particular recognize something very interesting in Basquiat's work that speaks from an interior place we universally have, like instinct, as well as a little tale about the world of art and celebrity, beauty and ugliness, being and posing, and seeing versus understanding, thanks in part to Julian Schable's remarkable movie "Basquiat"; an intimate interior view of a world where power and money and celebrity synthesize a culture that just so happens to have the attention of the most powerful people in the world in this amazing modern time frame. What function the avant garde of modern art serves the powerful and wealthy sophisticated class of international leaders is not something understood perfectly but one could speculate that being actively involved in collecting art and supporting art lends access to areas where visionary ideas can go from just ideas to reality. From that springs the innovations and challenges that will have our attention and those best attuned to it will be able to negotiate it for their advantage.

[mireille76]

Jean-Michel Basquiat is my favorite artist. For those who dont know about him, or think they can judge his body of work from this one image, do a little research. His story and his art are extremely compelling.

[AmandaBC]

The Schnabel movie is a good start to learn about his life and works. Quite remarkable.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115632/

[TravisReedJr]

BASQUIAT IS THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTIST TO BE PROPELLED INTO CELEBRITY STATUS ALONG SIDE WITH ANDY WARHOL. HIS ART IS THE FIRST TO REFLECT AFRICAN CULTURE(COLORS, MASKS, PROPORTION)..... IT EVEN TAKES IT THE NEXT STEP TO EXPRESS AFRICAN-AMERICAN CULTURE(BOXERS, ATHLETES). PICASSO WAS INFLUENCED BY THIS AFRICAN ART AND BASQUIT FINALLY GOT THE SAME FAME 50 YEARS LATER.... PICASSO'S INFLUENCE PUSHED THE CUBISM MOVEMENT........
THIS IS NOT UGLY ART!!!!!!
THIS ART IS JUST FROM A DIFFERENT PLACE!!!!!
SO, LETS NOT HATE ON ANY ART!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL ART IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LET'S CELEBRATE THIS ARTIST AS WE CELEBRATE OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IF YOU THINK THIS IS UGLY THEN YOU THINK THE AFRICAN CULTURE IS UGLY.....
WHICH MAKES YOU UGLY.....

AND REMEMBER ART DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE REALISM..... AFTER THE INVENTION OF THE CAMERA REALISM IS'NT SUBSTANTIAL BUT STIL APPRECIATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[j.gold]

please stop yelling

[KMan1]

Oh please what an extremely giant leap you just took there. It is entirely possible to think his work is overpriced crapola and have the utmost respect for African Culture.

[AmandaBC]

It is entirely possible to think Picasso's work is overpriced crapola . Many people actually do that, especially ignorant right-wingers who believe today's art is "degenerate" because it isn't figurative... (They actually think the $20 landscape oil they buy at a country fair in Idaho is "art"...)

[Chuckwheat]

All caps really suck. We're not deaf, so please don't yell.

[hrhkat]

Im sorry but i think its ugly....I like modern art, but some of this crap looks like it was done by a 5 year old. I want to see them paint like the masters did during the Baroque or the Reniassance artists, i bet they cant....all they can do is add tons of layers of paint and contrast colors...OOH WOW!, the art world is full of complete crap...they fall in love with the artist more then they do with his work...so sad...Dali was an amazing painter, Picasso? not so much, most of the impressionists werent that great either, Degas was a fairly good painter though...sculpture? not so much...go the the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, his sculptures werent very good...but his paintings were lovely.

There is a painting at the Norton Simon that is just a big blue square with a thin pink line going through it...THAT ISNT ART!, just like this painting isnt art...people are losing the techniques of the masters so they can become "unique and different" but in the end they all end up looking the same, and the only modern art that stands are the ones which use techniques that require not only tons of schooling, but a natural instinct that transcends schooling.

[j.gold]

Sorry but you don't get to define what art is or isn't! Art has evolved but it seem some people haven't.

Many, many artist spend years in school and decide to paint very unlike the masters. It would be boring to have the same kind of art for hundreds of years. It is harder then you thing to make good contemporary art. Why don't you scribble something out and try and sell it? Bet you can't.

[AmandaBC]

On the other hand, besides the genuine artists, there's hundreds of uninspiring copycats around the world selling their cr@p for a lot of money... Just because they're good businessmen with great PRs working for them, it doesn't make them automatically great artists. That, of course, excludes Basquiat, he was a real genius and his art was meaningful and innovative.

You should see "Achilles and the Tortoise", the new Takeshi Kitano comedy about the world of art. Written and directed by someone who truly loves contemporary art. IMHO, a masterpiece.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1217243/

[Murph1964]

Art is much bigger than technique, Renaissance or otherwise. It is also incorrect to assume that we are losing these techniques as they are still taught by universities everyday. Artists like Odd Nerdrum still employ these methods, but most contemporary artists find them fussy, old-fashioned and pedantic.

(yes.. I am an artist and an art history instructor at a state college)

[research]

"You may call them the elite, I call them my base" GWB

BushCo's Cronies are doing fine,

we just gave them 700B$+ to pay off their markers.

[TMAN]

With the advent of mass media and celebrity driven culture we are seeing the results of Art as Business vis-a-vis the public consciusness. Real art is being manifested all over the planet, daily by "man" in his community. Real art speaks to it's community. It speaks of it's community.

What we call "Art" today in our culture is merely business.

[TravisReedJr]

PICASSO WAS INFLUENCED BY AFRICAN ART.... PICASSO'S ART IS DIRECTLY REFLECTED BY AFRICAN MASKS THAT EXISTS TODAY... PICASSO WAS THE FIRST CELEBRITY ARTIST THAT WAS INFLUENCED BY AFRICAN ART AND IT WAS THE CATALYST OF THE CUBISM MOVEMENT. BASQUIAT WAS THE FIRST AFRICAN TO RECIEVE THIS CELEBRITY STATUS IN AMERICA USING HIS OWN CULTURE OVER 50 YEARS LATER. LETS CELEBRATE HIM AS WE DID OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[j.gold]

Most of you have ideas antiquated about art and are misinformed about what art is. In the beginning art was about about religion/ritual. It was not about beauty but sometime it was about the emotions beauty might invoke. Many old religious paintings were about the torture of martyrs and they were not pretty! They are violent depictions of what life was like for Christians at that time. Art today comments on life and/or strikes an emotion, this to does not have to be pretty. Life is not always pretty either. Basquiat did not live in a pretty world and his art reflects this. If you only like pretty art fine but that doesn't mean that other kinds of art are not valid or good art.

Don't quit you day job and become an art critic!

[columba]

I had never really paid much attention to art until my sister sold me an oil painting by Leo Kenney, a Northwest aritist. He was from Seattle. The painting has some beautiful geometric lines, circles, eyes, mist and the colors are grey, green, burgandy, white and blends of those colors. Everytime I look at it my perception changes and it just keeps me enthralled. The painting dates back to 1956.

[TravisReedJr]

RELAX A SECOND AND TAKE CHILL PILL.... BASQUIAT IS THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTIST TO BE PROPELLED INTO CELEBRITY STATUS ALONG WITH ANDY WARHOL. HIS ART IS THE FIRST TO REFLECT AFRICAN CULTURE(COLORS, MASKS, PROPORTION)..... IT EVEN TAKES IT THE NEXT STEP TO EXPRESS AFRICAN-AMERICAN CULTURE(BOXERS, ATHLETES).
THIS IS NOT UGLY ART!!!!!!
THIS IS ART FROM A DIFFERENT PLACE THAT ANDY WARHOL NOTICED AND LOVED!!!!!
SO, LETS NOT HATE ON ANY ART!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL ART IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Clavis]

I give Basquiat all the props for being a successful artist and doing his thing -- that doesn't mean that his art doesn't belong to a particular subculture, where you appreciate it for its own sake, where you impart all sorts of meaning to it that can't be gleaned just from it.

If I showed you a photo of a gun, you'd say, "okay, what?" But if I told you an exciting story about a murder that involved that gun, you'd say "Oooh, scary" or whatever. but that wouldn't make the photo of the gun inherently anything other than what it was. You need to backing story to make the photo interesting. It's the same thing with most art nowadays. There's an accompanying cultural narrative that you need to already have in your aesthetic back pocket; otherwise, Basquiat's work, sorry, really DOES look like some crap my dog coulda painted.

I respect the efforts of modern and post-modern and post-post-post-post-post-modern art, but you must respect that art that you need to study up on to get anything from it is what it is and ain't nothing else. Basquiat painted paintings that you have to be *into*, in order to get something out of them. I'm not impressed by his technique or his results. If his work has societal importance, than so be it. The painting itself accomplishes nothing. If Basquiat had a message to send, maybe he should have written an essay instead.

[KMan1]

I could have painted something way prettier for $50. So could my pet fish.