The 1982 “Warrior” artwork by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat has sold for $41.8 million at Christie’s auction in Hong Kong. It makes it the most expensive Western work of art ever sold in Asia.
According to AFP, the artwork beat value expectations and bidding went on for an “intense” 10 minutes between art collectors from Hong Kong and New York. The eventual buyer was not named in the statement from Christie’s.
However, it explained why the painting was so valuable and highly regarded. “Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Warrior is a commanding and authoritative portrait that amply demonstrates why the artist is regarded as one of the most important painters of the last half century,” the auction house said.
The painting itself was made with acrylic and spray paint on a wood panel and is one of Basquiat’s most revered piece of work. In 2012, it had been sold for $8.7 million to an American collector at Sotheby’s London and the price has since increased.
You may also like: Jay-Z autographed trading card sets record for non-sports card
The artist, at 21, had become the youngest artist to ever take part in documenta; an exhibition of contemporary art that takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. He was also the youngest to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial in New York when he turned 22.
Most of his art focused on dichotomies such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. Jean-Michel Basquiat used his paintings as a means for introspection and to identify with his experiences in the black community of his time, as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism. He criticised colonialism and was very political.
He was of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent and got the love of art from his mother who took him to museums at a very young age and even enrolled him as a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Jean-Michel Basquiat died of a h----n overdose at the age of 27 but has become an enigma in the art world. One of his works “Untitled” —a 1982 painting depicting a black skull with red and yellow rivulets— sold for $110.5 million in 2017.
The burden of genius is heavy
OPP.