Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) - Hollywood Africans - Giclée - 50x50 - Artestar licensed print - COA

Giclée print of Jean-Michel Basquiat (*)
Reproduction of the artwork “Hollywood Africans” created by Basquiat in 1983.
Deluxe edition on high-quality Monte Carlo watercolor paper (300 g/m²)
Print authorized by Artestar New York.
Copyright of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Includes Certificate of Authenticity (COA).

Specifications:

- Support dimensions: 50 x 50 cm
- Image dimensions: 40 x 40 cm
- Condition: Excellent (this work has never been framed or exhibited, and has always been kept in a professional art folder, so it is offered in perfect condition).

The work will be carefully handled and packaged in a reinforced cardboard box. The shipment will be insured with a tracking number, operated by the best transport companies (UPS DPD DHL FedEx).

The shipment will also include full insurance for the final value of the artwork with full reimbursement in case of loss or damage, at no cost to the buyer.

(*) Giclée is a term referring to a high-quality fine art printing process, digitally created with inkjet printers. This process uses pigment-based inks and specialized papers to achieve excellent sharpness, color accuracy, and durability, ideal for art reproductions and photographs.

(**) Jean-Michel Basquiat was the eldest of the three children of Matilde Andrades and Gerard Basquiat. His father was a financially solid Haitian accountant and his mother a highly regarded Puerto Rican graphic designer. Jean-Michel grew up in a fragmented family environment; his parents divorced, and he had to change schools many times. He studied at a private Catholic school, then a public school, and finally, at 16, he entered City-As-School, a school for gifted teens, from which he was expelled a year before graduating.

In his youth he came into contact with the city’s subculture, associated with drug use and street gangs. In 1977, together with Al Diaz, he entered the graffiti world, painting on subway cars and in SoHo, a Manhattan neighborhood full of galleries.

The following year he left school a year before finishing high school and left home to live for two years on the streets, in abandoned buildings or with friends in Lower Manhattan, surviving by selling postcards and T-shirts he decorated himself. He continued to devote himself to graffiti; his tags and writings carried poetic and philosophical weight, but above all satirical. The nickname of his shared alter ego with Al Díaz was SAMO (an acronym for “Same Old Shit,” meaning “the same old crap,” with which they signed their tags and graffiti with cryptic messages). The use of this name was decisive in his life.

These murals bore inscriptions like “SAMO saves idiots” or “SAMO ends religious brainwashing, the politics of nothingness, and false philosophy.” An article about SAMO’s street writing published in The Village Voice was the first indication that the art world was taking notice of him.

The artist had several relationships that influenced his work; one of the most significant was with Andy Warhol.

In the emotional sphere, he was involved with several women, one of the most well-known today being Madonna. Lower Manhattan was the area where they lived at the time; in 1982 they began to spend more time together and go to gallery parties. A theme that united them: she mentioned in an interview, “I was a big fan of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.”

In 1988 he had exhibitions in Paris and New York, and in April of that year he attempted to overcome his addictions and retreated to his home in Hawaii. He returned to New York in June, announcing that he had freed himself from his addictions, but on August 12, 1988, at age 27, he died of a heroin overdose, becoming the most successful visual artist in the history of Afro-descendant art. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Throughout his brief but intense artistic career, he would mount more than 40 solo exhibitions and participate in around 100 group shows. Self-promotion and advertising appeal were priorities for Basquiat, as they had previously been for Andy Warhol or Julian Schnabel.

Neo-Expressionism came to dominate over appropriationism, partly thanks to the economic boom that drove art prices, especially painting, to high levels, and partly thanks to the support of gallerists and collectors. However, criticism was not unanimous in its assessment, and there were frequent charges of a lack of theoretical grounding in neo-expressionist discourse. It was argued that the art practiced by neo-expressionists lacked any political or social meaning, was merely commodity, and therefore subject to the market’s fluctuations. Neo-expressionist painting was reduced to a consumer product and, as such, a creatively disqualified and vulgar act.