"Self-Portraits" Exhibition @ Skarstedt Paris

Self-Portraits

Skarstedt Paris

February 13 – March 29, 2025

Skarstedt Paris presents Self-Portraits, an exhibition that delves into the multifaceted nature of self-portraiture, exploring its significance as a means of self-expression throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Whether rendered in traditional or groundbreaking modes, each work on view delves into the paradoxes, nuances, and idiosyncrasies that make each identity unique, thereby connecting the artist’s individual ethos with universal values and themes.

Across the exhibition, the boundaries of self-representation dissolve into bold experimentation, where themes of transformation, temporality, and vulnerability intertwine. Jean Dubuffet’s Self-portrait from 1966, one of the six he ever made, would become the cover image of the Pompidou retrospective in 2001. It is part of the L’Hourloupe series, a cycle that sets a creative protocol between 1962 to 1974, a veritable exploration of a new language that touches on all artistic spheres explored by the French artist. Using sinuous, labyrinthine graphics, Jean Dubuffet composed schematic spaces like constructs of the mind. The surreal and the introspective converge in André Masson’s Le Voyant - Ville Crânienne (1940), a poetic synthesis of ink and gouache that evokes the fractured nature of identity as seen through a surrealist lens. The self emerges as both seer and subject, a fragment of the subconscious shaped by unseen forces. This notion of transformation continues in the conceptual play of Cindy Sherman, whose Untitled Film Still #24 (1978) disrupts the idea of self-portraiture as truth-telling. By embodying various personas through costumes and cinematic framing, Cindy Sherman dissolves herself into archetypes, exposing the performative masks society demands and the fluidity of personal identity. Martin Kippenberger's Untitled (1992), part of his series of Hand Painted Pictures, interrogates the conventions of self-portraiture by embracing irony and subversion, presenting the artist's identity as a fractured, performative construct. Through a deliberate amalgamation of self-deprecation and painterly virtuosity, Martin Kippenberger critiques the commodification of the artist's persona while questioning the authenticity of self-representation itself.

Georg Baselitz, by inverting his figure in Der Anfang ist der Abgang (The Beginning is the Departure) (2017), offers a meditation on the destabilization of the self. His deliberate subversion of form mirrors the psychological disorientation of self-reflection, confronting mortality and the inexorable passage of time. Similarly concerned with the interiority of human experience, Eric Fischl invites viewers into a deeply introspective yet playful meditation on the act of self-representation in Cat ‘n Hat (2024). By positioning himself in a jester’s hat, Eric Fischl underscores the inherent absurdity of the artist’s role—laying oneself bare before an audience through the act of painting. This duality, at once vulnerable and self-aware, reflects the paradox of creation as both an intimate exposure and a performative gesture, where humor becomes a defense against the weight of self-examination.

More than fifty years earlier, Pablo Picasso articulated his anxieties regarding his place within the art historical canon through works such as Buste d’Homme (1964), produced during a prolific period of introspective self-portraits that utilize a pared-down style to express the urgency of his feeling in his later years that he had “less and less time, and…more and more to say.”[1] Similarly, Francis Bacon’s late Study for Self-Portrait (1979) uses intense light and shadow to highlight the creases along his forehead and other visible signs of age, investigating himself as a means of simultaneously investigating the human condition, traumas, and violence. Turning to self-portraiture “because [he] had nobody else left to paint,”[2] this intimately-scaled work questions at what degree of distortion the work can still be a representation of the self. Juan Gris’s Autoportrait (1911-1912), rendered in the language of Cubism, deconstructs and reassembles the figure into facets of geometry. The fractured planes not only speak to the multiplicity of the self but also to the structural interplay between form and meaning in modernist art.

The tactile intensity of Frank Auerbach’s layered compositions further complicates notions of self. His visceral approach to works like Self-Portrait II (2024) transforms the portrait into a locus of memory, each mark carrying the weight of time’s erosion on identity. Similarly, Chantal Joffe’s vibrant palette and bold brushwork in a new painting imbue her portrayals with a raw immediacy and a diaristic quality that captures the precarious balance between strength and fragility, echoing themes of femininity, motherhood, and self-examination. Louis Fratino likewise fills his canvases with a quiet familiarity, using the queer body as a mirror for the vastness of memory and emotional expression. Throughout the 1980s, Robert Mapplethorpe also reflected his commitment to themes of gender expression. In Self-Portrait (1980), we find him draped in a luxurious fur coat, exuding an elegance in the style of Rrose Sélavy, Marcel Duchamp’s alter ego, whose playful fluidity of gender and self-reinvention are echoed by Mapplethorpe in a manner that suggests Robert Mapplethorpe’s rejection of traditional binary definitions of gender.

Through the subversive materiality of grease and pigment, David Hammons challenges the very medium of portraiture. His Untitled (circa 1970) resists conventional depictions of identity, offering instead an enigmatic interplay of texture and absence that critiques cultural and societal narratives, particularly as they relate to race in America. In making his body both the image and material of the work, David Hammons literally gives his viewers a reflection of his experience as a Black man in America. These themes continue in Untitled (SAMO) (1981) by Jean-Michel Basquiat. With its economy of means, Jean-Michel Basquiat conveys the reality of his place in American society and the visceral emotions that accompany it. His refusal to depict his true likeness in preference of a mask-like figure gets to the heart of self-portraiture’s role as a personal mode through which to explore identity, culture, and posit one’s own social commentaries. In making himself appear almost as an African mask, his experiences as a man of color in 1980s America act as proxy for the universal experiences of others like him.

Together, these artists reveal the self as a site of tension and transformation—a space where cultural, personal, and artistic identities collide and evolve. The works in Self-Portraits invite viewers to explore the shifting terrain of representation, where each artist unearths the essence of individuality within the universal human experience.

[1] Pablo Picasso quoted in Marie-Laure Bernadac, Late Picasso: Paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints 1953-1972 (London: Tate Publishing, 1988), 85.

[2] Francis Bacon, quoted in David Sylvester, Interviews with Francis Bacon (London: Thames & Hudson, 2016), 150.

SKARSTEDT PARIS

2 Avenue Matignon, 75008 Paris

www.skarstedt.com

Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ouattara Watts: A Distant Conversation @ Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH, USA

Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ouattara Watts

A Distant Conversation

Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH, USA

October 26, 2024 — February 23, 2025 

The Currier Museum of Art presents the latest chapter in its ongoing series of "Distant Conversations" pairing the work of artists whose artistic and intellectual affinities manifest across barriers of time and space. This new exhibition brings together six artworks by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988), one of the most celebrated and influential artists of his generation, and seven large canvases by New York–based Ivorian painter Ouattara Watts (b. 1958). 

“‘Distant Conversations’ at the Currier has brought together artists whose works transcend time and geographical boundaries,” said Jordana Pomeroy, Director of the Currier. “We are delighted to bring together Basquiat and Watts in an exhibition that captures the spark between these two artists, although they knew each other only briefly.”

The two artists first met in 1988 at the opening of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s solo show at Yvon Lambert Gallery, which was held only seven months prior to his death. The exhibition at the Currier imagines how their friendship and mutual influence could have evolved over time and demonstrates how, despite Basquiat’s untimely death, their dialogue and spiritual exchange have effectively continued. Following their serendipitous first meeting in Paris, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ouattara Watts quickly became friends and established a strong intellectual connection. Jean-Michel Basquiat was so taken by Ouattara Watt’s work after a single studio visit that he convinced the Ivorian painter to move to New York City, where he would introduce him to gallerists and collectors, providing essential support and help in launching Ouattara Watts’ career overseas. During their brief friendship and artistic alliance, Basquiat and Watts traveled together to New Orleans—Basquiat was fascinated with the city and wanted to show Watts how diasporic African cultures and traditions had permeated and creolized the local culture. The two had already planned a trip to Watts’ home country of the Ivory Coast—Basquiat wanted to explore the country he had first visited in 1986 in the company of his new friend. Sadly, the trip never happened, as Jean-Michel Basquiat died on August 12, 1988, shortly before they were to depart.

Ouattara Watts moved to Paris from the Ivory Coast in 1977 to study at the École des Beaux-Arts. Ouattara Watts had been showing his work in gallery contexts since 1985—the same year that Basquiat was profiled for the cover of the New York Times Magazine in an article titled “New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist.” While Ouattara Watts was beginning his career in the art world, Jean-Michel Basquiat had already permeated mainstream culture, elevating graffiti to the realm of high art and re-energizing the art of his time by infusing the Neo-Expressionist movement with his distinct, sophisticated, and politicized visual language. Like Watts, who references multiple religions and spiritual practices in his work in addition to musical and scientific symbolism, Basquiat uniquely blended diverse sources of inspiration and often included language and writing in his paintings. Born in Brooklyn to a Haitian father and a mother of Puerto Rican descent, Basquiat’s artistic inclination and intellectual curiosity manifested early. Following his participation in seminal group exhibitions such as the Times Square Show and New York/New Wavecurated by Diego Cortez (MoMA PS1, NYC), and his collaboration (SAMO) with street artist Al Diaz, Basquiat began his solo career in 1980 with successful solo presentations at Annina Nosei Gallery and Fun Gallery. In 1982, he joined Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, helping to propel him to international stardom.

Born and raised in Abidjan, Ouattara Watts’s work has been strongly influenced by his family’s cultural and religious syncretism. He first arrived in Paris in the late-1970s, motivated by his profound love for art and art history. Once in Europe, he soon found in painting a means of reconciling the African context in which he was raised with his experience of the West. By combining in his oeuvre elements originating in different religions and traditions, Ouattara Watts presented Jean-Michel Basquiat with visual and intellectual solutions for recomposing and healing his sense of displacement and diasporic fracture, which he was grappling with at the same time as he sought an outlet for righteous anger at anti-Black racism. In the time that he became close with Ouattara Watts, Jean-Michel Basquiat was increasingly invested in learning about his African heritage and keen to experience the continent firsthand. His first trip to the Ivory Coast, during which time he prophetically visited Ouattara Watts’ hometown of Abidjan, is an early testament to this commitment.

The exhibition at the Currier captures these two important artists as they encounter each other at a crossroads, a mental and spiritual space simultaneously informed by Africa and the West. They were literally traveling in opposite directions, in search of meaning and connection, when they found each other on a complementary although reverse journey.

Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ouattara Watts: A Distant Conversation presents six artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat from a private collection alongside seven large paintings by Ouattara Watts. The earliest piece in the selection by Basquiat is a portrait of art critic and curator extraordinaire Henry Geldzahler (c. 1981) who interviewed Jean-Michel Basquiat for a January 1983 feature in Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. Works like Feng Yao (1983) and Dinah Washington (1986) speak directly to Basquiat’s interest in dance and music. And jazz music was a passion he shared with Watts.

Procession (1986) painted by Jean-Michel Basquiat on slats of wood showcases his desire to experiment with different materials while enhancing the depth of his paintings and subverting the rules of ‘high art.’ Similarly, Ouattara Watts, whose first paintings upon arriving in Paris were created on tarp (a far cheaper and more resistant material than canvas) often combines diverse techniques and layers to create works that are worlds unto themselves. Watts’ artistic vision is often outwardly and celestial. At times, however, the work seems more solidly grounded with direct references to African ceremonial traditions and landscapes. Watts’ palette is explosive and rich in tonalities, as clearly demonstrated by his most recent body of work (the Spiritual Gangster series from 2023) included in this exhibition. While paintings like Intercessor #0 (1989) and Beyond Life (1990) were made around the time of Watts’ friendship with Basquiat, other works in the selection prove how their spiritual and artistic conversation continued despite the latter’s passing in 1988. A conversation that continues at a distance to this day

CURRIER MUSEUM OF ART

150 Ash Street, Manchester, NH 03104, USA

currier.org

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Engadin Exhibition @ Hauser & Wirth, St. Moritz

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Engadin

Hauser & Wirth, St. Moritz

14 December 2024 - 29 March 2025

Exploring various artistic motifs that combine the natural and cultural landscape of the Engadin with the metropolis of New York, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s first solo exhibition dedicated to the paintings he created in and inspired by his visits to Switzerland opens on 14 December at Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz. ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat. Engadin’ traces the renowned artist’s connections to the country, which began in 1982 with his first show at Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich, returning over a dozen times to St. Moritz, Zurich, Appenzell and Basel. The Engadin region in particular continued to fascinate Basquiat long after his return to New York, resulting in a body of work that captures his impressions of the Swiss Alpine landscape and culture through the lens of his highly distinctive and personal artistic language.

Jean-Michel Basquiat. Engadin

Hauser & Wirth Publishers

‘Jean-Michel Basquiat. Engadin’ will be accompanied by a catalog from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, featuring a foreword by Bruno Bischofberger and a text by Dr. Dr. Dieter Buchhart to give visitors a unique insight into this specific chapter of one of the most important artists of the 20th Century.

The exhibition is supported by Dr. Dr. Dieter Buchhart and Dr. Anna Karina Hofbauer, internationally renowned curators and Jean-Michel Basquiat experts.

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1960 and coming of age in the downtown, post-punk artistic scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jean-Michel Basquiat drew on the diversity and intensity of New York City within his multi-disciplinary practice. His expressive paintings combined bold text and imagery from his expansive references across art, film, history and music, as well as his experiences of everyday racism as a young Black man in the US.

After his first exhibition with Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in 1982, the same year el Jean-Michel Basquiat became one of the youngest ever artists to participate at Documenta in Kassel, the influences of the disparate cultural landscapes of New York City and Switzerland began to take shape in his work, incorporating the motifs of ski lifts, fir trees, mountains and German phrases into his expansive visual lexicon. ‘From then on, Jean-Michel Basquiat often visited me in Switzerland, where he particularly liked it. About half a dozen times in Zurich and exactly seven times in St. Moritz, four of them in the summer’, says Bischofberger. Basquiat was captivated by the Engadin’s vast natural landscape, cultural history and the hospitality of the Bischofberger family. Perhaps what drew Basquiat most to this part of Switzerland was, as Dr. Dr. Dieter Buchhart writes, ‘the contrast between the pulsating life, the clubs, the street noise, and the breakneck speed of the metropolis New York and the ‘discovery of slowness’ in the unique, overwhelming landscape of the Engadin.’

One of the earliest works on view in the exhibition is the monumental painting ‘The Dutch Settlers’ from 1982. Composed of nine canvases, the painting is a prime example of Basquiat’s innovative approach of marrying William S. Burroughs’ ‘cut-up’ technique with a method akin to sampling technology used in hip hop. The montage of nine canvas panels enabled Jean-Michel Basquiat to assemble, combine and recombine different image fields – creating a multi-layered work that emanates a visual rhythm described as an ‘Eye Rap’ by art historian Robert Storr. The artist paints powerful motifs which reference the African Diaspora and slavery (evoked through words such NUBIA and TOBACCO) alongside images of the Engadin, depicting fir trees, a mountain road, as well as an ibex, the heraldic animal of the canton of Graubünden and native to the region. This mountain iconography can also be seen in the playful works ‘Skifahrer (Skier)’ and ‘See (Lake)’ on view in the exhibition. The former depicts a comic-like figure on a bright red background and the latter the local landscape at night, both painted in St. Moritz a year later. These works were part of a series by Basquiat that he intended for a hunting lodge, and were subsequently hung in the Bischofberger’s St. Moritz dining room.

In the winter of 1983/1984, during one of Basquiat’s visits to the Engadin, Bischofberger and the artist began discussing the idea for a collaboration between Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Francesco Clemente. The three artists each created four paintings and a drawing, which were subsequently transported between them to complete. ‘In Bianco’ (1983) showcases the clearly distinguishable artistic contributions from all three, demonstrating how each artist reacted respectfully to the parameters of the others. As Buchhart notes, ‘the cornerstone for this important collaboration was laid in St. Moritz’, marking a turning point in Basquiat’s artistic practice and proving Switzerland to be of great historical significance for the artist in more ways than one.

Integrating the immediate world around him with his varied encyclopaedic knowledge, ‘Big Snow’ (1984) sees Jean-Michel Basquiat once again processing his impressions of the Engadin in conjunction with themes relating to race and Black history, combining motifs of the Swiss mountains, snow and skiing with the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936 and Jesse Owens’ win of four gold medals. In 1985, Basquiat would go on to be part of a group show at the Segantini Museum in St. Moritz, showcasing his work ‘See (Lake)’ (1983) in an exhibition titled ‘The Engadine in Painting’. The latest body of work on view includes a group of monochrome paintings titled ‘To Repel Ghosts’ which Basquiat created in 1986 during his time in Zurich and St. Moritz, exploring themes of emptiness as well as spirituality in relation to the African Diaspora. Musing on what kept drawing the artist back to Switzerland, Buchhart writes, ‘For Basquiat, the Engadin meant work, inspiration, friendship, and rest and relaxation, all at the same time.’

HAUSER & WIRTH ST. MORITZ

Via Serlas 22, 7500 St. Moritz

www.hauserwirth.com

Jean-Michel Basquiat Paintings @ Phillips' Auctions, New York & Hong Kong - "Basquiat’s World: Works Formerly from the Collection of Francesco Pellizzi"

Basquiat’s World: Works Formerly from the Collection of Francesco Pellizzi

Phillips, New York & Hong Kong

14 & 31 May, 2024

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Untitled (ELMAR), 1982

68 x 93 1/8 in. (172.7 x 236.5 cm)

Estimate: $40-60 million

To be Offered on 14 May in New York

Image courtesy of Phillips

A testament to the auction house’s unwavering commitment to the legacy of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Phillips will offer three magnificent paintings by the artist this Spring, all formerly from the original collection of Francesco Pellizzi and the Pellizzi Family. Professor Pellizzi was the co-founder and editor of the journal Res, Anthropology and Aesthetics, published by the Peabody at Harvard and Chicago University Press. Each of the works was acquired by Pellizzi from Annina Nosei in the early 1980s, a pivotal point in the artist’s career, and remained in his collection for decades. Phillips’ Evening Sales in New York and Hong Kong mark the first time that these important works will be offered publicly. Untitled (ELMAR), 1982, and Untitled (Portrait of a Famous Ballplayer), 1981, will be sold in New York on 14 May, with Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982, being offered two weeks later in Hong Kong on 31 May. Prior to the sales, the three works are unveiled in New York for an exhibition open from 8-14 April, followed by a tour to Los Angeles from 23-25 April, marking the last time that they will be on view together.

Robert Manley, Deputy Chairman and Worldwide Co-Head of Department, said, “Phillips is proud to have become the house of Basquiat over the past decade. From the sale of Flexible for $45 million from the artist’s estate, to the $85 million sale of Untitled, 1982, from the Maezawa Collection, to our role as a lead sponsor of the Basquiat family’s King Pleasure exhibition, Phillips’ celebration of the artist’s genius extends beyond the saleroom. We are now honored to announce this incredible group of works, boasting some of Basquiat’s most iconic imagery with equally impressive provenance and exhibition history. An inspired collector, Francesco Pellizzi acquired timeless works that underscore Basquiat's enduring significance and artistic vision, as they continue to inspire and provoke thought forty years later.”

A classicist and an anthropologist by training, who had studied with Claude Lévi-Strauss in Paris, Professor Pellizzi wrote in one of his many essays on art*, “A ‘good eye,’—I’ve always had trouble understanding what that expression meant—is, if anything, the capacity to connect with what is truly unprecedented (hence “disturbing” if only for a little while).”

Jean-Michel Basquiat at the

Pellizzi residence in New York, NY, 1984

Photo by Francesco Pellizzi

© Francesco Pellizzi

Francesco Clemente, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat 

at the Pellizzi residence in New York, NY, 1984

Photo by Francesco Pellizzi

© Francesco Pellizzi

Leading the group of works being offered is Untitled (ELMAR), created in 1982 and acquired by the Pellizzi Family just two years later [illustrated page one]. At nearly eight feet wide, the monumental work is a cornerstone of el Jean-MicBasquiat's golden year, during which he transitioned from street art to gallery success. Emblematic of Basquiat’s best works, Untitled (ELMAR) is rich in iconography and self-referential imagery. On the left, a “fallen angel” figure, birdlike and adorned with the recurring crown-of-thorns motif—which doubles as a halo—hovers above a luminous blue sea of scribbled waves and the text “ELMAR”, suggesting a modern-day Icarus on the verge of descent. To the right, a radiant archer, also crowned, releases two arrows in his direction. Untitled (ELMAR) ultimately reflects Jean-Michel Basquiat's exploration of duality within his own identity and encapsulates the essence of the artist at the peak of his creative powers.

Untitled (ELMAR) has a significant history; it was included in an exhibition dedicated to the Collection of Francesco Pellizzi at the Hofstra Museum in New York in 1989, and later presented at Gagosian Los Angeles as part of a memorial exhibition in 1998, marking the 10-year anniversary of Basquiat’s death. It was notably featured on the cover of the accompanying catalogue. More recently, the work was prominently exhibited in the artist’s historical 2018 retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Untitled (Portrait of a Famous Ballplayer), 1981

50 1/8 x 43 1/2 in. (127.3 x 110.5 cm)

Estimate: $6.5-8.5 Million

To be offered on 14 May in New York

Image courtesy of Phillips

Jean-Michel Basquiat's groundbreaking transition from street art to canvas reached a pivotal moment in 1981 as seen in Untitled (Portrait of a Famous Ballplayer). This seminal piece, executed during a transformative period in Basquiat's career, stands as a testament to his exploration of race, identity, and American culture, which would endure throughout the rest of his career. It was exhibited at historic shows such as Nosei’s Jean-Michel Basquiat Memorial Exhibition, which opened in December 1988, just a few months after his passing and coinciding with what would have been the artist’s 28th birthday.

In Untitled (Portrait of a Famous Ballplayer), Jean-Michel Basquiat juxtaposes symbols of the "all-American" sport with his depiction of a Black central figure donning a baseball uniform, as well as his signature text and crown motifs. Basquiat challenges societal norms and confronts stereotypes, inviting viewers into a complex dialogue on inclusion and exclusion within American culture. Basquiat's use of the phrase “FAMOUS NEGRO ATHLETES” (with “NEGRO ATHLETES” notably crossed out) serves as a potent commentary on race, identity, and representation. It also reflects Basquiat's own experiences as a Black artist living and working in a predominantly white art world.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982

72 1/8 x 71 3/4 in. (183.2 x 182.2 cm)

Estimate: $12-18 Million / HK$90-120 Million

To be offered on 31 May in Hong Kong

Image courtesy of Phillips

Since Phillips became a key operator in Asia in 2015, the company has been dedicated to presenting the best Western artworks to collectors and enthusiasts in the region. The company’s significant growth in Asia underscores the activity of Asian collectors acquiring works by the most important international artists. Jean-Michel Basquiat is a perfect example of this, with collectors in Asia being drawn to the artist’s oeuvre, which resonates deeply with the region's rich artistic traditions. In 2022, Phillips sold Untitled, 1982, from the collection of Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, with the buyer also being a private collector in Asia. Given Basquiat’s enduring appeal and resonance in Asia, Phillips offers Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982, at Phillips Hong Kong on 31 May.

In this work, a Black figure dominates the canvas with its arms raised, confronting a colonial poacher. The artwork merges intricate draftsmanship with street art gestures and takes on such significant subjects such as slavery and empire. Through a direct portrayal and the incorporation of text, Jean-Michel Basquiat critiques colonial commerce, encapsulating his broader themes of colonization, commercialization, and African American history. Reduced to caricatures, the figures symbolize “native” and “colonizer”, evoking explicit critiques of white imperialism. Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari reflects Jean-Michel Basquiat’s acute awareness of societal issues and stands as an emblematic representation of his oeuvre, capturing the intensity of his artistic vision.

* Francesco Pellizzi, in 1979-1989 AMERICAN, ITALIAN, MEXICAN ART, from the Collection of Francesco Pellizzi

AUCTION DATES:

New York | 14 May | Untitled (ELMAR), 1982, and Untitled (Portrait of a Famous Ballplayer), 1981

Hong Kong | 31 May | Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982

EXHIBITION DATES:

New York | 8-14 April | All Three Works

Los Angeles | 23-25 April | All Three Works

Taipei | 4-5 May | Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982

New York | 4-14 May | Untitled (ELMAR), 1982, and Untitled (Portrait of a Famous Ballplayer), 1981

Hong Kong | 22 May – 31 May | Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982

PHILLIPS NEW YORK – 432 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022

PHILLIPS HONG KONG – G/F, WKCDA Tower, West Kowloon Cultural District, No. 8 Austin Road, West Kowloon

www.phillips.com

Exposition Basquiat. The Modena Paintings @ Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Bâle

Basquiat. The Modena Paintings

Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Bâle

11 juin – 27 août 2023

13 ans après la grande rétrospective qu’elle avait consacrée à Jean-Michel Basquiat, la Fondation Beyeler accueille une nouvelle fois l’œuvre de l’artiste new-yorkais. Elle présentera les « Modena Paintings », huit toiles de grand format que Jean-Michel Basquiat a peintes en 1982 dans la ville italienne de Modène pour un projet d’exposition qui n’a finalement jamais vu le jour. Plus de 40 ans plus tard, la Fondation Beyeler réunit pour la première fois ces chefs-d’œuvre, aujourd’hui détenus dans des collections privées aux États-Unis, en Asie et en Suisse, parmi eux plusieurs des œuvres les plus célèbres et les plus chères de Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) compte parmi les artistes majeurs du XXe siècle finissant. Au début des années 1980, il accède en peu de temps à une notoriété internationale, alors que la peinture figurative connaît une renaissance. Jean-Michel Basquiat, une des personnalités les plus magnétiques du monde de l’art, débute dans l’underground new-yorkais en tant que poète graffeur et musicien avant de se consacrer pleinement à l’art. Sa peinture hautement expressive et débordante d’énergie lui vaut rapidement l’admiration du milieu. Âgé de seulement 21 ans, il est le plus jeune artiste invité à participer à la Documenta 7 qui se tient à Kassel en été 1982. Encouragé par Andy Warhol, il devient une véritable célébrité artistique, fêtée dans le monde entier. Fils d’un père haïtien et d’une mère dont les parents venaient de Porto Rico, il est le premier artiste noir à percer dans un milieu artistique dominé par des protagonistes blancs·ches. Outre Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat collabore avec Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente, Debbie Harry et d’autres artistes et musicien·ne·s. Jusqu’à son décès soudain en août 1988, il produit en moins d’une décennie un vaste œuvre comptant plus de 1’000 tableaux et objets ainsi que 3’000 œuvres sur papier.

Après l’âge d’or de l’art conceptuel et de l’art minimal dans les années 1960 et 1970, Jean-Michel Basquiat parvient à imposer un nouveau langage visuel figuratif et expressif. Ses oeuvres, peuplées de personnages évoquant ceux des bandes dessinées, de silhouettes de squelettes, d’objets étranges du quotidien et de slogans poétiques sont puissantes et somptueusement colorées. Elles font converger des motifs issus de la culture pop et de l’histoire culturelle, entre autres des domaines de la musique et du sport, ainsi que des thèmes politiques et économiques, pour aboutir à des commentaires critiques de la société de consommation et de l’injustice sociale, en particulier du racisme.

La première exposition personnelle de Basquiat se tient en 1981 à la Galleria d’Arte Emilio Mazzoli à Modène, à l’époque encore sous le pseudonyme SAMO© qu’il inscrivait à la bombe aérosol sur les wagons et les parois du métro new-yorkais et qui datait de sa collaboration avec le graffeur Al Diaz. Le jeune artiste avait capté l’attention du galeriste italien Emilio Mazzoli quelques mois auparavant dans l’exposition collective « New York / New Wave » organisée par Diego Cortez au P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center (aujourd’hui MoMA PS1) à Long Island City. Emilio Mazzoli avait alors mis à la disposition de Jean-Michel Basquiat un espace de travail et du matériel pour lui permettre de créer de nouvelles oeuvres. Au début de l’été 1982, à l’invitation de Mazzoli, Jean-Michel Basquiat retourne à Modène pour sa première exposition européenne sous son vrai nom.

À Modène, Emilio Mazzoli dispose d’un entrepôt qui sert aux artistes de passage pour travailler. Ainsi, plusieurs années durant Mario Schifano séjourne régulièrement à Modène pour y peindre. Lorsque Jean-Michel Basquiat arrive, il tombe sur plusieurs reliquats du travail de Schifano : outre des tableaux achevés, il trouve aussi des toiles apprêtées et des toiles vierges. Attiré par leurs dimensions exceptionnelles, il les utilise pour ses propres tableaux. Il produit ainsi un groupe d’oeuvres de chacune plus de deux mètres sur quatre, plus grandes que et différentes de tout ce qu’il avait peint jusque là. En apposant l’indication « Modena » et sa signature au dos des toiles, il les désigne comme un groupe d’oeuvres cohérent.

Mais des désaccords opposent les galeristes Annina Nosei, qui représente Jean-Michel Basquiat à New York depuis fin 1981, et Emilio Mazzoli, entraînant l’abandon du projet d’exposition à Modène. Dans une interview accordée au New York Times en 1985, Jean-Michel Basquiat revient sur son deuxième séjour à Modène et exprime sa frustration : « Ils ont organisé les choses de telle manière que je doive produire huit tableaux en une semaine », et il compare son travail dans l’entrepôt à « une usine, une usine malsaine. J’ai détesté. » Au final, Mazzoli règle Jean-Michel Basquiat pour les oeuvres produites et l’artiste retourne à New York.

Les huit tableaux peints à Modène trouvent finalement de nouveaux propriétaires par l’entremise d’Annina Nosei : Bruno Bischofberger en acquiert quatre (Profit I, Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, Untitled [Woman with Roman Torso (Venus)], The Guilt of Gold Teeth) et les autres passent dans diverses collections à l’international. Aujourd’hui, les huit toiles se trouvent dans différentes collections particulières aux États-Unis, en Asie et en Suisse. Certaines d’entre elles se sont recroisées dans le cadre de rétrospectives, d’autres n’ont que rarement été montrées en public. Le projet de la Galleria d’Arte Emilio Mazzoli n’a pas encore fait l’objet de recherches et de mises en lumière approfondies. Et pourtant, non seulement les tableaux produits à Modène figurent parmi les plus importants de l’oeuvre de Basquiat et les oeuvres les plus chères de tout l’art contemporain, mais le projet d’exposition finalement abandonné constitue lui aussi un événement particulier dans la carrière de l’artiste. Pour la première fois, les tableaux de Modène seront bientôt réunis au sein d’une présentation unique à la Fondation Beyeler – 40 ans plus tard, le projet d’exposition est ainsi enfin réalisé.

Sam Keller, directeur de la Fondation Beyeler, explique : « Tous les ‹ Modena Paintings › se trouvent aujourd’hui dans des collections privées. Certains d’entre eux ont été donnés à voir dans le cadre d’expositions consacrées à Basquiat, mais jamais encore ils n’avaient figuré ensemble et côte à côte dans une même présentation ainsi que l’avait prévu Basquiat à l’origine. Grâce à notre bonne collaboration de longue date avec la famille Basquiat et les collectionneurs de Basquiat, nous sommes parvenus à réunir toutes les oeuvres et à rattraper ainsi un moment d’histoire de l’art. »

Les « Modena Paintings » partagent plusieurs caractéristiques en termes de motif et de style : les huit tableaux sont tous dominés par une figure monumentale, souvent noire, sur fond de larges traits de pinceau à la gestuelle expressive. Untitled (Angel) et Untitled (Devil), opérant comme un quasi diptyque, donnent à voir les figures titulaires d’un ange et d’un démon sous forme de portraits en buste, les deux bras levés – posture pouvant être comprise aussi bien comme implorante que triomphante, et qui non seulement se répète dans d’autres images du cycle mais apparaît de manière récurrente dans l’oeuvre de Jean-Michel Basquiat. Le squelette suggéré à coups de traits horizontaux sommaires dans Untitled (Devil) de même que le crâne aux orbites et aux cavités nasales profondes caractérisent également les figures dans Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump et The Field Next to the Other Road. Parmi les autres signes distinctifs des personnages de Jean-Michel Basquiat figure un ornement placé au-dessus de leur tête, parfois auréole et parfois couronne d’épines, qui apparaît également dans Untitled (Woman with Roman Torso [Venus]) et Profit I. Comparées aux autres oeuvres du groupe, ces deux dernières présentent tout comme The Guilt of Gold Teeth une plus grande densité des « griffonnages » si typiques de Basquiat. The Guilt of Gold Teeth, avec ses mots cryptiques, ses combinaisons de chiffres et ses symboles de dollar, préfigure déjà certaines évolutions plus tardives de l’oeuvre de l’artiste. Avec Untitled (Cowparts), qui donne à voir une vache plus grande que nature aux énormes yeux ronds, le cycle se boucle dans la mesure où les épais traits de pinceau blancs utilisés pour accentuer le corps noir dans Untitled (Angel) soulignent ici les contours de l’animal.

À l’exception des deux tableaux Profit I et The Guilt of Gold Teeth, dans lesquels la combinaison d’acrylique, de peinture aérosol et de crayon à l’huile établit un dialogue avec le dessin, le groupe d’oeuvres met l’accent sur le geste pictural. Le collage visuel d’images et de mots habituellement si typique du travail de Jean-Michel Basquiat n’apparaît que peu dans les oeuvres réalisées à Modène. Dans l’ensemble, le répertoire de Modène est moins morcelé et se concentre sur des compositions plus vastes et expansives. Le corps humain et animal y occupe le premier plan. Contrairement aux oeuvres antérieures, celles de Modène ne donnent pas à voir d’impressions des rues de la grande ville. On retrouve dans plusieurs des huit toiles les mêmes tonalités, ainsi dans les vastes fonds plats, de même que l’utilisation semblable et répétée de traits de pinceau rouge écarlate pour appuyer les figures représentées. Basquiat avait pour habitude de travailler sur plusieurs toiles en parallèle car les différentes couches de couleur avaient besoin de temps pour sécher.

L’exposition est placée sous le commissariat conjoint de Sam Keller, directeur de la Fondation Beyeler, et d’Iris Hasler, Associate Curator à la Fondation Beyeler.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

The Modena Paintings

Hatje Cantz Verlag

Un catalogue a été publié au Hatje Cantz Verlag, Berlin, en allemand et en anglais, retraçant le développement du concept d’exposition initial jusqu’à son abandon en 1982 et consacrant un court texte à chacun des tableaux créés à Modène. Il comprend des textes de Dieter Buchhart, Iris Hasler, Fiona Hesse, Michiko Kono, Regula Moser, Demetrio Paparoni et Jordana Moore Saggese.

FONDATION BEYELER

Baselstrasse 77, CH-4125 Riehen

www.fondationbeyeler.ch

Inaugural Exhibition at Phillips Los Angeles - Featured Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ernie Barnes, Amy Sherald, Julie Mehretu, Tom Wesselman, Willem de Kooning, Claude Lalanne...

Inaugural Exhibition at Phillips Los Angeles

25 – 27 October 2022

Phillips Los Angeles, 9041 Nemo Street, West Hollywood

Credit: Eric Staudenmaier

Courtesy of Phillips 

Phillips announces details surrounding the opening of its new Los Angeles outpost, the launch of which underscores the company’s commitment to the West Coast amid its continued global expansion. Open to the public from 25-27 October, the exhibition will feature works from the upcoming auctions of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, Watches, and Design, including Jean-Michel Basquiat’s To Repel Ghosts, estimated at $7-10 million. Also on view will be two works by Ernie Barnes from the collection of Golden Globe-Nominated actor Richard Roundtree, in addition to paintings by Amy Sherald and Julie Mehretu. Timepieces on view in Los Angeles include watches by Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet, and Claude Lalanne’s Pair of “crococurule” stools from the December Design auction will also be featured in the exhibition.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

To Repel Ghosts, 1985

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $7,000,000 - 10,000,000

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s To Repel Ghosts is among the highlights of the exhibition and will be a star lot in the November Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art. The monumental work, measuring seven feet tall, is a nearly double-life-sized portrait of Basquiat’s friend and fellow artist Jack Walls. Well known in 1980s downtown circles as Robert Mapplethorpe’s muse and romantic partner, Walls is rendered in Jean Michel Basquiat’s distinctive visual idiom—unmistakable by the gestural swathes of black, white, and yellow pigment—against a surface of affixed wooden boards. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s penchant for incorporating doors and other found media into his practice first led him to experiment with timber slats for his 1984 masterwork Flexible, which employed the fencing that surrounded his Los Angeles studio. Exceedingly pleased with the resulting aesthetic effect, Jean-Michel Basquiat soon returned to the idiosyncratic material, which he purchased from a Soho lumber yard to comprise the support of more than 17 paintings in the mid 1980s. Epitomizing his guiding principle to—quite literally—bring the urban environment into his studio, this major work from 1985 nods to Jean-Michel Basquiat’s past as a street artist while anticipating the hallmarks of his mature style. The work belongs to a series of portraits Jean-Michel Basquiat undertook in 1985 of Black subjects in the downtown art scene. The work’s title, To Repel Ghosts, is one of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s most iconic phrases which has become synonymous with the artist’s declaration of his own identity.  

Ernie Barnes

Untitled (Basketball Players), circa late 1970s-early 1980s

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $300,000 - 400,000

Ernie Barnes

My Man, circa 1980

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $150,000 - 200,000

Phillips also presents two works by Ernie Barnes, owned by Golden Globe-nominated actor Richard Roundtree, an icon of American cinema, most notable for his role as SHAFT. Despite being neighbors in 1970s Los Angeles, Roundtree discovered Barnes’ artistic endeavors after Sammy Davis Jr. and Charlton Heston purchased his artworks. When Roundtree learned that Ernie Barnes lived just four blocks away, he walked to his home and met with him. As an actor who desired to explore Black experiences on screen, it was important for Rountree to see these artworks. They visually captured life, people, and places he had experienced. The hues used in both works are reflective of primary colors often found in Black American films during the 1970s. Deep browns, yellows, tans and hints of “blue-black,” were cultural markers that signified the wide range of skin color and complexion found in Black America. Evidenced in both Untitled (Basketball Players) and My Man, Ernie Barnes’ unique ability to elevate the everyday to the extraordinary have captivated collectors across the world, with the market for his work having reached new heights

Amy Sherald

Pilgrimage of the Chameleon, 2016

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $1,800,000 - 2,500,000

Phillips continues to lead the market for Amy Sherald, holding the world record and all top four prices at auction. We are thrilled to be offering Amy Sherald’s Pilgrimage of the Chameleon, 2016, this fall. At 72 x 51 inches, the work is notably larger than her standard 54 x 43 inch format, making this a rare opportunity to acquire a large-scale masterpiece by the artist.

Julie Mehretu

Tsunemasa (next to Kaija), 2014

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $4,000,000 - 6,000,000

Julie Mehretu’s Tsunemasa (next to Kaija) will also be on view in Los Angeles. Inspired by the popular Japanese Noh drama Tsunemasa, the work evokes the mystical realm of the ceremony in the theatrical narrative as well as the Noh tradition of a tree as a background. Her use of sumi ink echoes these ancient traditions, with the medium used in East Asian calligraphy and meant to recall the essential nature of mark-making. A superb example from one of Julie Mehretu's most acclaimed bodies of work, Tsunemasa (next to Kaija) coalesces her signature layered approach with a softer, more gestural idiom that evokes both cave drawings and urban graffiti. An enlarged reproduction of the work was used as the set for Peter Sellars’ staging of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Only the Sound Remains, which was performed across Europe and Canada beginning in 2016.

Tom Wesselmann

Mouth #14 (Marilyn), 1967

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $3,500,000 - 4,500,000

Coming to auction for the first time since its creation, Tom Wesselmann’s Mouth #14 (Marilyn) is an iconic iteration of the artist’s series of Mouth paintings. Executed in November 1967, a watershed year for the artist, the work is among the early pivotal works in the series that were conceived in tandem with Wesselmann’s first Smoker paintings. Immersing the viewer into a hypnotic erotism and graphic intensity that characterizes the best of Tom Wesselmann’s works, here the mouth of Marilyn Monroe is transformed into a pair of sultry scarlet lips, her blonde strands of hair evoking sensual flames. Immediately recalling Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe’s Lips, 1962, the present work is at once an homage to Marilyn’s iconic smile and an embodiment of the relationship between advertising and celebrity. Exhibited at Sidney Janis Gallery the year of its creation, Mouth #14 (Marilyn) marks the apex of Tom Wesselmann’s mid-career painterly investigations that established him at the forefront of the Pop art vanguard.

Audemars Piguet

Reference 26585CE, Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $150,000 - 300,000

Also included in the opening exhibition are highlights from The New York Watch Auction: SEVEN and Design, with both auctions being held in December 2022 in New York.

Designed by Formation Association, Phillips Los Angeles marks the first brick and mortar space on the West Coast for the auction house, alongside an extensive network of specialists in the region, with representatives having long been in place in Seattle and San Francisco. 

Phillips Los Angeles will look to engage the vibrant collecting community on the West Coast through a robust calendar of events. A new partnership with the design influencer website Sight Unseen will activate the space from the launch of the gallery onward, with works by locally based contemporary designers on view alongside the auction highlights of 20th Century & Contemporary Art and Watches. Further details of the partnership are forthcoming.

Other hightlights include Willem de Kooning's painting Untitled (Lady in Red), circa 1977; Yayoi Kusama's painting Nets Blue, 1960; Helen Frankenthaler's painting Saturday Night, 1985; Claude Lalanne's Pair of "Crococurule" stools, designed 1992, produced 2009 and 2012; Amoako Boafo's painting White on White, 2019, among others.

Willem de Kooning

Untitled (Lady in Red), circa 1977

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $4,000,000 - 6,000,000

Yayoi Kusama

Nets Blue, 1960

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $2,500,000 - 3,500,000

Helen Frankenthaler

Saturday Night, 1985

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $800,000 - 1,200,000

Claude Lalanne

Pair of "Crococurule" stools, designed 1992, produced 2009 and 2012

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate Upon Request

Amoako Boafo

White on White, 2019

Courtesy of Phillips

Estimate: $100,000 - 150,000

Estimates do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.

PHILLIPS LOS ANGELES

9041 Nemo Street, West Hollywood, Los Angeles

www.phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Sales @ Phillips, New York & Online

20th Century & Contemporary Art Sales
Phillips, New York
July 2, 2020

JOAN MITCHELL

Noël, 1961-1962

Estimate: $9,500,000 – 12,500,000

© The Estate of Joan Mitchell, Courtesy of Phillips

Phillips announces its forthcoming 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York City via livestream to bidders worldwide on July 2, 2020 at 5pm EDT. The sale will debut an enriched digital experience on Phillips.com, including augmented multimedia content, enhanced visuals, and art historical and market analysis that will allow for deep viewer engagement. A dynamic live auction streamed on their online platform will bring the live auction experience to collectors and viewers around the world using a virtual international bidding room of Phillips specialists.

“Phillips has been at the forefront of identifying the future of the bidding and buying experience online with the ability to bid on our app along with live streaming for nearly half a decade. We’re thrilled to bring our marquee Evening Sale to collectors worldwide in a format that will capture the intimacy and excitement of being in the room,” states Jean-Paul Engelen, Phillips Deputy Chairman and Worldwide Co-Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art.

Featuring more than 20 lots, the sale includes works by artists highly sought after in today’s market including Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Gerhard Richter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Matthew Wong, David Hammons, Amoako Boafo, Albert Oehlen, Lucas Arruda, Christina Quarles, Charles White, Banksy, KAWS and others.

“The works presented in our 20th Century & Contemporary Sale mark the bellwether of the art market today, featuring artists who have demonstrated collector demand across the globe with a focus on African American, female, and cutting-edge contemporary artists,” states Robert Manley, Phillips Deputy Chairman and Worldwide Co-Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art.

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

Victor 25448, 1987

Valued at $10 million

© The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Courtesy of Phillips

Evening Sale Highlights

Two superlative works by artists of the 20th century include Joan Mitchell’s Noël and Helen Frankenthaler’s Head of the Meadow. An exceptional 1994 painting by Gerhard Richter hails from the height of his abstract period coincides with the highly regarded retrospective currently at the Met Breuer, Gerhard Richter: Painting After All.

Following the house’s stellar result for Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Flexible, which sold for more than $43 million in 2018 more than doubling the pre-sale low estimate of $20 million, Phillips will offer an impressive work executed in 1987, just one year before his untimely death. Last offered publicly more than a decade ago, Victor 25448 captures the singular coalescence of text and imagery that is a hallmark of the artist’s celebrated practice.

An Old Master replica tagged with a stenciled monkey guzzling gasoline from a child’s juice box represents a significant work by master-interventionist Banksy to come to auction this season from his Crude Oil series. Fellow disruptor KAWS is represented with a large-scale early Companion painting from 2000.

BANSKY

Monkey Poison, 2004

Estimate: $1,800,000 – 2,500,000

© Bansky, Courtesy of Phillips

On the heels of Phillips’ strong debut offering of American art in the 20th Century & Contemporary Sales with Norman Rockwell’s Before the Shot in November 2019, marking the first time the artist was ever included in a 20th Century and Contemporary Evening Sale and achieving a price of $4.7 million, this sale will offer a rare, never publicly-seen painting by Maxfield Parrish. Humpty Dumpty, 1921, hailing from The du Pont Family, captures the technical prowess and imagery which hovers between popular kitsch and surreal that has cemented the artist’s position as the “Grand Pop” of American Pop Art by Time magazine.

MAXFIELD PARRISH

Humpty Dumpty, 1921

Estimate: $400,000 – 600,000

© The Estate of Maxfield Parrish, Courtesy of Phillips

Phillips continues to debut artists with significant primary market following to auction. This season the sale will feature a painting by Matthew Wong, the self-taught artist known for this interior scenes and landscape depictions, marking one of the first paintings by Matthew Wong offered in an Evening Sale context. Other contemporary artists debuting this season include Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and Robert Nava.

MATTHEW WONG

Mood Room, 2018

Estimate: $60,000 – 80,000

© Matthew Wong, Courtesy of Phillips 

CHARLES WHITE

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, 1958

Estimate: $700,000 – 1,000,000

© The Estate of Charles White, Courtesy of Phillips 

Charles White’s Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child from 1958, painted shortly after the artist moved to Los Angeles where he became an important teacher and mentor for African American artists at Otis College of Art and Design. Taking its title from an African American spiritual, which regained popularity in the civil rights movement, the work is a significant example of his signature draftsmanship utilizing ink wash in color. With an estimate of $700,000 – $1,000,000, the work is poised to make a world record for the artist in this medium. David Hammons’ Untitled (Jordan begins his 8th season as no. 1) from 1991 transforms a copy of the Amsterdam News from November 2, 1991 into a work of contemporary realism.

CHRISTINA QUARLES

Placed, 2017

Estimate: $70,000 – 100,000

© Christina Quarles, Courtesy of Phillips 

Phillips continues to bring to market works by artists for which we have achieved world record results across our sales globally. The sale includes a painting Lucas Arruda whose world record was achieved at Phillips London in February 2020, realizing a price of £300,000, as well as a painting by Christina Quarles for whom we achieved the world record this past November 2019, $275,000, more than five times the low estimate of $50,000, after debuting the artist in a Phillips’ Day Sale New York November 2018. In addition, the sale will feature a work by Amoako Boafo, whose world record was achieved at Phillips London in February 2020 with his auction debut The Lemon Bathing Suit, which achieved a price of £675,000 more than twenty times its low estimate of £30,000.

Francis Picabia’s 1941-42 Portrait de Femme hails from a late period in the artist’s career devoted to painting pin-ups, which have gone on to have a significant influence on contemporary artists working today including John Currin and David Salle.

Julio González’s bronze sculpture, L’arlequin / Pierrot ou Colombine represents his pioneering practice in light of his collaborative work with Pablo Picasso.

Day Sale Highlights 

Phillips 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale will be livestreamed to bidders worldwide on July 2 across two sessions, starting at 11am EDT and later at 2pm EDT. The sale will champion numerous artists from the 20th and 21st centuries, featuring more than 170 lots across both sessions. 

JOHN CHAMBERLAIN

Pure Drop, 1983

Estimate: $600,000 – 800,000

© The Estate of John Chamberlain, Courtesy of Phillips

Leading the Morning Session is John Chamberlain’s monumental Pure Drop, 1983, from the artist's Giraffe series. Pure Drop exemplifies Chamberlain's novel sandblasting technique, which began to define his oeuvre after his move to Florida in the early 1980s. Also featured in the sale is a remarkable landscape painting from 1995 by Cuban artist Tomas Sánchez, Meditador, its title referring to Tomas Sánchez’s conception of landscape playing a meditative role between man and nature. Another top lot is Kenneth Noland’s Resect, 1979, one of the artist’s renowned asymmetrically shaped canvases. Other notable works include sculptures by Anne Truitt and Joseph Cornell, and two works by Henri Laurens, culminating the selection of works from the Collection of Florence Knoll Bassett, which have been offered across Phillips’ 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Sales over the past year.

NOAH DAVIS

100 Years of Entertainment 1-5, 2008

Estimate: $120,000 – 180,000

© The Estate of Noah Davis, Courtesy of Phillips

The Afternoon Session will feature works by important contemporary artists, including Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Matthew Wong, Amoako Boafo and Noah Davis—notably Noah Davis’s 100 Years of Entertainment 1-5, 2008, which exemplifies the abstracted figuration for which the artist is known. This comes to auction on the heels of a new world auction record for the artist, set this past March at Phillips, with a painting selling for $400,000, over six times its low estimate. Another highlight will be Vivian Springford’s Untitled (Tanzania Series), 1972, the first work by the artist to be offered at Phillips. While an active figure in the New York art scene from the 1950s to the 1970s, Vivian Springford withdrew from the public eye until her work was rediscovered in the late 1990s just before her death, and more recently shown at Almine Rech Gallery in New York in 2018. 

VIVIAN SPRINGFORD

Untitled (Tanzania Series), 1972

Estimate: $60,000 – 80,000 

© The Estate of Vivian Springford, Courtesy of Phillips

JOHN BALDESSARI

Double Bill (Part 2): ...and Ernst, 2012

Estimate: $200,000 – 300,000

© The Estate of John Baldessari, Courtesy of Phillips

The sale will also include John Baldessari’s Double Bill (Part 2): …and Ernst, 2012—a quintessential example of John Baldessari’s unmistakable semiotic wordplay—from the Collection of Blake Byrne, Los Angeles.

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session
Auction: 2 July 2020, 10am EDT
Location: 450 Park Avenue, New York
Click here for more information: https://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/NY010420

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Afternoon Session
Auction: 2 July 2020, 2pm EDT
Location: 450 Park Avenue, New York
Click here for more information: https://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/NY010520

20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Auction: 2 July 2020, 5pm EDT
Location: 450 Park Avenue, New York
Click here for more information: https://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/NY010320

PHILLIPS
www.phillips.com

Contemporary African American art, "30 Americans" at DIA, Detroit

30 Americans 
The Detroit Institute of Arts 
October 18, 2015 - January 18, 2016

Barkley L. Hendricks 

Noir, 1978

Oil and acrylic on canvas. 

Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the premier art museums in the US, presents “30 Americans,” a dynamic exhibition of contemporary art by African American artists, on view Oct. 18, 2015–Jan. 18, 2016. “30 Americans” includes 55 paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs and videos by many of the most important African American artists who rose to prominence during recent decades by exploring racial, gender, political and historical identity in contemporary culture.

Jean-Michel Basquiat 

Bird On Money, 1981

Acrylic and oil on canvas. 

Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami 

Among the renowned artists included are Barkley Hendricks, Kerry James Marshall, Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson and the late Jean-Michel Basquiat and Robert Colescott. Their influence on a younger generation can be seen in the works of artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Nick Cave, Mickalene Thomas and Kara Walker.

Rashid Johnson 

The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Thurgood), 2008

Lambda print, Ed. 2/5. 

Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami 

The exhibition is organized around several artistic approaches used by the artists to explore identity: defying Western art traditions; portraying black subjects as real people as opposed to types; sampling multiple sources of inspiration, from historical material to found objects; freestyling by adopting improvisational and expressionistic styles to demonstrate creative and technical virtuosity; signifying through the use of symbols, materials and images that imply or trigger associations about gender, race, religion, class and sexuality; transforming the body’s appearance to examine the relationship between societal assumptions and identity; and confronting American history regarding race, racism and power in the United States.

This exhibition is drawn from the acclaimed Rubell Family Collection, Miami.

Artists in the exhibition

Nina Chanel Abney (1982)
John Bankston (1963)
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988)
Mark Bradford (1968)
Iona Rozeal Brown (1966)
Nick Cave (1959)
Robert Colescott (1925 - 2009)
Noah Davis (1983)
Leonardo Drew (1961)
Renée Green (1959)
David Hammons (1943)
Barkley L. Hendricks (1945)
Rashid Johnson (1977)
Glenn Ligon (1960)
Kalup Linzy (1977)
Kerry James Marshall (1955)
Rodney McMillian (1969)
Wangechi Mutu (1972)
William Pope.L (1955)
Gary Simmons (1964)
Xaviera Simmons (1974)
Lorna Simpson (1960)
Shinique Smith (1971)
Jeff Sonhouse (1968)
Henry Taylor (1958)
Hank Willis Thomas (1976)
Mickalene Thomas (1971)
Kara Walker (1969)
Carrie Mae Weems (1953)
Kehinde Wiley (1977)
Purvis Young (1943 - 2010)

Detroit Institute of Arts 
5200 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48202
www.dia.org