Two of Jean-Michel BasquiatThe artist’s most recognizable paintings still in private hands will be auctioned next month in New York, where they are collectively expected to fetch more than $75 million.
The monumental painting El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) (1983), which features symbols of African culture, particularly Egypt, has resided in the collection of Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani for nearly two decades. The painting is expected to sell for around $45 million when it goes to auction at Christie’s New York, where it has the highest estimate of any work offered at the house’s 20th and 21st century sales. (Last May, the auction house’s top lot was Andy Warhol’s 1964 canvas Blow Sage Blue Marilynwhich grossed a record $195 million including fees.)
In a section of The Big Showthe ancient Egyptian god Osiris is depicted driving a boat down a river, while phrases and symbols scrawled throughout the work draw on the links between Africa and the African diaspora.
According to Christie’s, painting previously owned by the publisher Enrico Navarreone of the main collectors of works by Basquiat who died in 2020. But for almost two decades it has been part of Garavani’s private collection and can be seen hanging in the background of a photograph taken of Garavani at his New York home in 2010 for vanity lounge. In 2021, Valentino co-founder and longtime Garavani partner Giancarlo Giammetti sold another painting by Basquiat for $93.1 million (including fees), the second best result for a work by the artist at auction.
The Big Show has been featured in a number of public exhibitions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art’s posthumous retrospective in 1992. This exhibit later traveled to the Menil Collection in Houston, the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Alabama. The painting will be offered as part of Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale on May 15 at Rockefeller Center in New York, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Accademia Valentino.
Jean-Michel Basquiat It is time (1985) Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Three nights later, on York Avenue, another well-known work by Basquiat will go up for auction. It is time (1985) is the artist’s recreation of the vinyl pressing of jazz legend Charlie Parker’s 1945 record of the same name. The circular acrylic and oil stick painting on plywood measures seven feet in diameter and is more austere than most of Basquiat’s other works.
It is time will make its auction debut at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale on May 18 and was featured by magazine editor Peter Brant, the only collector to ever own the painting. More recently, It is time was a centerpiece of See strong: Basquiat and music, an exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts that delves into the influence of music on Basquiat’s work. Sotheby’s estimates the painting will sell for over $30 million.
The job market for Basquiat, who died aged 27 in 1988, has only grown in the 35 years since his death. The record for the artist at auction is $110.5 million (including fees), set in 2017 when the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa bought an untitled skull painting from 1982 at Sotheby’s New York.
“Basquiat’s genius is undeniable. Her presence and influence breaks down boundaries, spanning fashion, art and pop culture. The impact he continues to have on culture is inescapable and only expanding,” said Alex Rotter, Christie’s President for 20th and 21st Century Art, in a statement.
