Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) - Sienna - Giclée - 50x45 - Artestar licensed print *COA*

Giclée Print (*) of Jean-Michel Basquiat (**)
High-quality reproduction of the work “Sienna,” created by Basquiat in 1984.
Luxury edition on Monte Carlo heavyweight 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 45 cm
- Stain dimensions: 40 x 35 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 artwork will be carefully handled and packaged in a reinforced flat cardboard package. The shipment will be insured with a tracking number, operated by the leading transport companies (UPS DPD DHL FedEx).

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

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

(**) Jean-Michel Basquiat was the eldest of the three children of Matilde Andrades and Gerard Basquiat. His father was a respectable, financially stable Haitian accountant, and his mother a Puerto Rican graphic designer of great prestige in her profession. Jean-Michel grew up in a torn family environment; his parents divorced, and because of this he had to change schools many times. He studied at a private Catholic school, then a public school, and finally, at 16, he enrolled in City-As-School, a school for academically gifted teens, from which he was expelled, out of rebellion, a year before graduating.
As a youth he became involved with the urban subculture, related to drug use and street gangs. In 1977, together with Al Díaz, he entered the world of graffiti, painting on subway cars and in the SoHo area, a New York neighborhood where art galleries proliferated.
The following year he left school a year before graduation and ran away from 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 with graffiti; his paintings and writings carried much poetic and philosophical, but above all satirical, content. The alias of his shared alter ego with Al Díaz was SAMO (an acronym for “Same Old Shit,” i.e., “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 sign that the art world was taking an interest in him.
The artist had several relationships that influenced his work; one of the most significant was with artist Andy Warhol.
Also, on a romantic level, he was involved with several women; one of the best known today was Madonna. Lower Manhattan was the area where they lived at that time; in 1982 they began to spend more time together and go to parties in galleries. One theme that united them, she mentions in an interview: “I was a big fan of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.”
In 1988, exhibitions were installed in Paris and New York, and in April of that year he tried 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 addictions, but on August 12, 1988, at the age of 27, he died of a heroin overdose, becoming the most successful visual artist in Afro-descendant art history. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, in Brooklyn.
Throughout his brief but intense artistic career, he held more than 40 solo exhibitions and participated in around 100 group shows. Self-promotion and publicity were prioritizing factors for Basquiat, as they had been for Andy Warhol or Julian Schnabel before him.
Neo-expressionism came to dominate over appropriationism, partly thanks to the economic upsurge that pushed art prices, especially painting, to high levels, and partly thanks to the support of gallery owners and collectors. Criticism, however, was not unanimous in its valuation, and it was common to accuse neo-expressionist discourse of lacking theoretical grounding. It was argued that the art practiced by neo-expressionists lacked any political or social meaning; it was merely merchandise and, therefore, subject to market fluctuations. Neo-expressionist painting was reduced to a consumer product and, as such, a creatively disqualified and vulgar fact.