Futura 2000 (1955) - Untitled (Atom)

Original drawing by Futura (Leonard Hilton McGurr, born 1955 in New York),
made in pink and mauve marker on heavy black paper.

It shows the atom, the abstract motif that has identified the artist since
the early days of New York graffiti: a sphere of interlaced lines caught
inside its orbits, with the central comma that is his signature device. The
drawing is hand-signed "Futura" in marker below the image.

This is a unique work. It is not a print, not a multiple and belongs to no
edition.

Provenance and dating, stated plainly: the drawing was obtained at the same
time as a Chez Nous exhibition card hand-signed by Andre Saraiva, which
places it at the opening of Chez Nous, the joint Andre Saraiva and Futura
exhibition held at Danysz Gallery in Paris from 15 December 2018 to
9 February 2019. The sheet itself carries no date, so the year given here is
inferred from that context and not read from the work. No certificate of
authenticity is supplied with the drawing, and none is claimed.

Material: marker on heavy black paper
Condition: excellent
Shipping: sent flat, tracked and fully insured, protected between rigid
boards in a stiffened package. Never rolled or folded.

About the artist
Futura was born Leonard Hilton McGurr in New York in 1955 and began painting
subway trains in the early 1970s. He moved away from letter based graffiti
towards abstraction, working with sprayed atmospheric grounds, fine linework
and recurring motifs such as the atom and the pointman. He showed at the Fun
Gallery in the early 1980s and was included in New York/New Wave at PS1 in
1981. He was close to The Clash, designing the sleeve for This Is Radio
Clash and painting backdrops on stage during their shows. The Bronx Museum
presented a retrospective of his work, Futura 2000: Breaking Out, in 2024.

Similar artists: Rammellzee, Dondi White, A-One, Crash, Daze, Lee Quinones,
Blade, Seen, Keith Haring, JonOne, Andre Saraiva