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

Giclée Print (*) by Jean-Michel Basquiat (**)
High-quality reproduction of the work “Sienna,” created by Basquiat in 1984.
Luxury edition on heavyweight 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:

- Paper dimensions: 50 x 45 cm
- Image dimensions: 40 x 35 cm
- Condition: Excellent (this work has never been framed or displayed and has always been stored in a professional art portfolio, so it is offered in perfect condition).

The work will be carefully handled and packed in reinforced flat cardboard packaging. It will be shipped by registered mail with a tracking number, using the best shipping companies (UPS DPD DHL FedEx).

Shipping will also include full insurance for the final value of the work, with a full refund in the event of loss or damage, at no cost to the buyer.

(*) Giclée is a term referring to a type of high-quality fine-art print, created digitally using inkjet printers. This process uses pigment-based inks and specialist papers to achieve great sharpness, color accuracy, and durability, making it ideal for reproductions of art and photographs.

(**) Jean-Michel Basquiat was the first of the three children of Matilde Andrades and Gerard Basquiat. His father was a Haitian accountant of respectable financial means, and his mother was a Puerto Rican graphic designer highly respected in her profession. Jean-Michel grew up in a fractured family environment; his parents divorced, and as a result he had to change schools many times. He attended a private Catholic school, then a public school, and finally, at the age of 16, enrolled at City-As-School, a school for gifted teenagers, from which he was expelled for rebellious behavior one year before graduating.
In his youth, he came into contact with the big city’s subculture, associated with drug use and street gangs. In 1977, together with Al Díaz, he entered the world of graffiti, painting on subway cars and around SoHo, a New York neighborhood known for its many art galleries.
The following year, he left school one year before graduating from 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 that he decorated himself. He continued making graffiti; his paintings and writings were deeply poetic and philosophical, but above all satirical. The pseudonym of his alter ego, shared with Al Díaz, was SAMO (an acronym for “Same Old Shit,” meaning “the same old shit”), which they both used to sign their tags and graffiti bearing cryptic messages. The use of this name proved decisive in his life.
These murals bore inscriptions such as “SAMO saves idiots” or “SAMO puts an end to religious brainwashing, the politics of nothing, and false philosophy.” An article about SAMO’s street writing published in The Village Voice was the first indication that the art world was interested in him.
The artist had several relationships that influenced his work; one of the most significant was with artist Andy Warhol.
He also had relationships with several women; one of the best-known today was Madonna. Lower Manhattan was the area where they lived at the time; in 1982 they began spending more time together and going to gallery parties. One thing they had in common, she mentioned in an interview: “I was a big fan of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.”
In 1988, exhibitions were mounted in Paris and New York, and in April of that same 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 his addictions, but on August 12, 1988, at the age of 27, he died of a heroin overdose, becoming the most successful visual artist in the history of African-descended art. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Over the course of his brief but intense artistic career, he held more than 40 solo exhibitions and participated in around 100 group exhibitions. Self-promotion and publicity were priorities for Basquiat, as they had previously been for Andy Warhol and Julian Schnabel.
Neo-expressionism gradually eclipsed appropriationism, partly thanks to the economic boom that drove art prices—and painting in particular—to great heights, and partly thanks to the support of dealers and collectors. Critics, however, were not unanimous in their assessment, and it was common to hear complaints about the lack of theoretical grounding in neo-expressionist discourse. It was claimed that the art practiced by the neo-expressionists had no political or social meaning; it was merely a commodity and therefore subject to the market’s ups and downs. Neo-expressionist painting was reduced to a consumer product and, as such, deemed creatively disqualified and vulgar.