MEDSAN - Basquiat King of Air (バスキア風の空の王) - UNIQUE WORK

ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD - EDITION 1/1
PRINT ON CANVAS, digital print not painted

With this square-format work, Medsan brings the Air Jordan 1 “Chicago” from 1985 into the graphic vocabulary of Jean-Michel Basquiat. The most mythologized sneaker in basketball history becomes an urban totem here, surrounded by three-pointed crowns, schematic skulls, and the SAMO tag that launched the painter onto the walls of Downtown Manhattan. The slogan “KING OF AIR” replaces Basquiat’s “KING OF” here, and Michael Jordan’s 23 responds to the copyright the artist placed on his own words.

The rendering directly imitates the material of 1980s neo-expressionism: red and black impasto that feels knife-cut, freely dripping vertical flows, writings that appear chalky, erasures and arrows from a notebook turned into a painting. The raw canvas peeks through in patches, as in Basquiat’s wood-and-tarp assemblages, while the grid of black lines structures the saturated space. The palette sticks to primaries — blood red, bright yellow, blue, black and white — and the shoe emerges from this chaos of signs with almost advertising clarity. The bones drawn on the upper recall the painter’s obsessive anatomy, grafted onto the leather of the model.

The connection is not arbitrary: Basquiat and Jordan are two Black figures who became global icons at the same moment, in the same New York of the 1980s, crowned kings by a market that surpassed them. Crowning a sneaker is to pose the question the painter already asked: who decides what is valuable, and at what price? The skull, never far, reminds us of what fame costs.

A piece that is at once raw and scholarly, ideal for bringing a street touch and neo-expressionism to a contemporary interior, for both sneaker collectors and urban art enthusiasts. The buyer receives a unique giclée print — pigment print on canvas mounted on a wooden frame — numbered 1/1 and hand-signed.

Technical specifications:
Artist: Medsan
Reference: Basquiat / Air Jordan 1 Chicago / neo-expressionism / SAMO / crown / street art
Dimensions: 40 x 40 cm
Edition: Unique work — 1/1 (one-of-a-kind worldwide)
Year: 2026
Support: Pigment print on canvas (giclée), mounted on a wooden frame (thickness ~2 cm)
Signature: Yes, hand-signed
Condition: Excellent condition
Certificate: Certificate of authenticity (upon request)

About Atelier:
Atelier Joconde is a collective of artists gathered around a living, plural contemporary creation. Set up as a true center of artistic production, the workshop operates both with collective creation and individual approaches, depending on projects and works. Atelier Joconde is also a family venture. Le Yack, a contemporary figurative painter, develops a narrative and introspective body of work with cinematic and realistic influences. Beside him, Medsan, oriented toward pop art painting, explores color, modern iconography, and visual culture. Finally, Neo Pablo follows a more instinctive search, blending abstract art, brut art, and figurative abstraction. Each work is conceived, realized, and followed within the studio, with a shared artistic standard and a unique identity for each artist.

Keywords:
Medsan, Atelier Joconde, Le Yack, Basquiat, Air Jordan 1 Chicago, neo-expressionism, SAMO, crown, street art, sneaker, square format, Contemporary, Unique work, 1/1