SOTHEBY’S NYC TO OFFER A MASTERPIECE BY JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

Friday, 13 April 2007 22:36

New York City – On May 15, 2007, Sotheby’s New York will offer a masterpiece by Jean-Michel Basquiat, painted in the seminal year of 1981.  Dazzling in its execution, Basquiat’s Untitled is an extraordinary work from the year when the artist first began to emerge as an enfant terrible of the downtown art scene in Manhattan.  The painting, the most important and desirable work by Basquiat to appear at auction in recent memory, was gifted to The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in 1985 by Barbara and Eugene Schwartz, New York, and is one of two major Basquiats from this period in the Museum’s collection.  It is being sold by the Museum to create the Barbara and Eugene Schwartz Contemporary Art Acquisition Endowment Fund. It is estimated to sell for $6/8 million*. 

After Basquiat participated in a group exhibition in September 1981 in the Soho gallery of Annina Nosei, Nosei became Basquiat’s primary dealer, and her gallery basement became his studio, where he began creating his unique brand of intellectualized “primitivism,” informed by a spectrum of art historical and cultural sources.  Untitled is a work from this first moment, fierce and violent, with a single black figure occupying almost the entire pictorial space of the painting.  The figure’s dreaded hair and vigorous pose surely reflect the artist’s engagement with himself and his history.  The work uses acrylic, oilstick and the spray paint of his early graffiti period.

Untitled was acquired by the Schwartzes from the Annina Nosei Gallery in 1981, the year it was painted, and gifted to the Israel Museum in 1985, to help underscore by example the importance of boosting the Museum’s participation in the field of international contemporary art. Early in its collecting history, the Museum was fortunate to acquire two major works by Basquiat from this seminal period of 1981-82: the present Untitled work, 1981, and Agony of the Feet, 1982, which was purchased in 1982 through the American Friends of the Israel Museum.  Both works are major, prodigious, fresh and outstanding examples of Basquiat’s talent. According to Director James S. Snyder, the Museum’s policy in acquiring contemporary art has been “to target singularly great works of individual artists with the goal of collecting one superior example by each for its permanent holdings.  Since the Museum holds two equally strong examples of Basquiat’s work, it makes sense to sell one to create an endowment fund for future contemporary acquisitions, the first of its kind in our history.”

Mrs. Schwartz endorsed the current sale enthusiastically, stating that “Gene would be so delighted to realize that our gift over twenty years ago – of an emerging artist to whom we were deeply committed, but who was not yet recognized as a master – might now provide an endowment to ensure the Israel Museum’s continuing ability to buy actively in the field of contemporary art, well into the future.”

The Painting
Untitled is a bravura composition of dense, muscular paint strokes depicting a raw and violent figure that leaves the viewer spellbound by Basquiat’s talent for mirroring the content of his painting with the manner of its application.  The artist’s energy is transferred into depicting the aggressive stance and personality of the centralized, monumental figure – a self-portrait – in a format that became iconic in his paintings of 1981-1982.

“Because Basquiat had such a short, rich career, each year that he worked is looked at under a microscope in the marketplace. 1981 was a watershed year for Basquiat.  It is the equivalent of 1948 for Pollock or 1954 for deKooning,” said Anthony Grant, Sotheby’s international senior specialist of Contemporary Art.  “This painting is a tour de force of Basquiat’s media and displays, despite its infancy, the virtuoso maturity and confidence of a master.  The combination of spray paint, acrylic and oilstick makes for one of the most energetic and engaging pictures I have ever seen by the artist.  The provenance of this work is also impeccable – acquired by the equally courageous and prescient collectors Barbara and Eugene Schwartz.”

The Israel Museum
The collections of the Israel Museum are unique in their encyclopedic nature, ranging from prehistoric archaeology to contemporary art.  The Museum’s distinguished contemporary art program, guided since 1982 by Curator of Contemporary Art and Chief Curator of Fine Arts Suzanne Landau, is committed to assembling signature works by artists while still early in their careers, in the hope over time of amassing a holding of singularly unique examples of these artists’ works.  The Museum has not traditionally had endowed acquisition funds at its disposal, and its program in contemporary acquisitions has been supported by International Friends’ committees in the U.S., U.K., France and Israel, whose members contribute annually to fund purchases of twenty or so carefully selected works each year.

"It is remarkable for a museum of our encyclopedic breadth and responsibility to be able to maintain so active a program of contemporary acquisitions," says James Snyder, the Museum's Director.  "Our history in doing so owes a great debt to the supportiveness of Contemporary Art Acquisition Committees worldwide, whose annual contributions have made possible over two decades of impressive involvement with contemporary art.  It is also notable that, until now, this history of growth has been achieved without endowed acquisition funds."

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