Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Hero, 1982, acrylic, oil stick and spray paint on wood panel.
Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. 2021
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Christie’s will begin live global sales in March with a Jean-Michel Basquiat festival offering
Hero as one lottery in Hong Kong for an initial estimate of HK $ 240 million (US $ 31 million).
If achieved, the painting – which contains a third-party promise – will be the highest price paid for Western artwork at a public auction in Asia, according to Christie.
The hero with a sword, with flashing eyes – one red, the other blood orange – was created with acrylic, oil, and spray paint on a wooden panel in 1982, a crucial year for the artist, who died at the age of 28 in 1988.
“You can see the anger, you can see everyday life on the street,” says Cristian Albu, Christie’s co-head of post-war and modern-day art in Europe.
The auction house chose to start its traditional 20th-century London sale in Hong Kong to continue a successful strategy, which began through the pandemic, of connecting its global hubs through real-time sales. , live-streaming.
Hong Kong single-handed sales also reflect the strength of the Asian market for Western works, which was evident in Christie’s livestream sales in December as several global records were set by established and emerging artists. . That relay auction began in Hong Kong before moving to New York.
“We wanted to capture that trend,” says Albu.
According to ArtTactic, auction sales by Christie’s, Phillips, and Sotheby’s have risen steadily in Hong Kong to demand a 23.1% market share, placing it second behind New York’s 41.5% share and above the 22.7% share in London. The 2020 results could “show that the global arts market is moving East,” London-based art analyst said in a recent report.
Hero sold by an American private collector who bought the work at Sotheby’s London in June 2012 for £ 5.6 million (US $ 8.7 million), taxed. Christie’s much higher estimate for March sales reflects the strengthening value of Basquiat’s operations, especially as pieces are continually being built with museums and private collections, Albu says.
An example is Basquiat Boy and Dog in Johnnypump, bought by Citadel hedge fund manager Ken Griffin for more than US $ 100 million in private sale. That 1982 worktop is larger at 7.9-by-13.8 feet; Hero is 6-by-4 feet.
Hero celebrating a new generation of contemporary Black musicians, athletes, and civil rights figures, who were “all heroes” to Basquiat, Albu says. The artist has said that he ‘paints’ royalty, heroism, and the streets,’ [and] you can see it all melting into one picture. ”
Also, Hero, an animated painting full of Basquiat’s iconic paintings, was created in 1982, within a progressive time for the artist. Nine of the top 10 prices achieved for Basquiat’s work for pieces executed from 1981 to 1982 were “the highest level of his creativity,” Albu says. In 2017 in New York, Christie sold a similar painting with a strong figure in the middle—La Hara, 1981 – for US $ 35 million, taxed, above a high estimate of US $ 28 million.
That work, which was also presented in an acrylic stick and oil on a wooden panel, had almost the same dimensions as Hero. Moreover, the current estimate, Albu says, reflects “the power of painting, the roughness of the picture.”
To offer the work in Asia represents something of coming home for the painting, as it had its first exhibition in Tokyo at the Akira Ikeda Gallery in 1983. It was recently featured at the Brant Art Study Center exhibition. 2019 Foundation of Basquiat work in New York.
Hero can now be seen from February 19 to March 1 at Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza headquarters in New York before heading to Hong Kong on March 15.
The Hong Kong auction will start at 10pm HKT (2pm in London). Following the sale, Christie’s will move to London where between 35 and 40 lots will be sold first at a 20th century sale, and then a further 30 lots for sale in Surrealism sales.