Posted on December 22, 2019
In a 2017 auction, one painting sold for 110.5 million dollars!
That's a record high for any American artist's work sold at auction. And who, you might wonder, was so highly desirable that collectors would pay THAT much for a painting?
You might guess that it would be Jackson Pollock, famous for his scattery spatters.
Or maybe James Whistler, famous for a portrait of his mother, or maybe Grant Wood, whose farmer partners are often seen or referenced or copied / parodied.
Or Georgia O'Keefe, famous for her flower close-ups.
Nope! Don't get me wrong, these artists' works are worth millions - and their most famous works are probably considered priceless. Like, whatever museum or gallery or person has possession of them, there is NO amount of money that would tempt them to sell.
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| Photo by William Coupon |
But the record setting artist, who was born in New York City on this date in 1960, was graffiti and street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
(!)
Wait - how do you sell graffiti in an auction???
Of course, a graffiti artist / street artist might sometimes paint on something other than walls and fences - she or he might sometimes even paint on traditional canvasses or - gasp! - paper. Basquiat did a lot of paintings that could be exhibited and sold. Even when he first started, he hand-painted postcards and T-shirts that he sold to passers-by on the street. A very famous artist, Andy Warhol, bought one of his postcards!
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| The record-breaking painting, like many of Basquiat's works, is untitled. Pictured her with the painting is the buyer. |
Basquiat was so good, he was approached by art movers and shakers, and he had his first solo exhibition in 1981, when he was just 21 years old. At that point, he became an established artist and made a lot of connections in the art world - and his art was exhibited all over the world! - but then Basquiat tragically died of a drug overdose in 1988.
Here are some of his other works:
Basquiat's record-breaking sale broke a few other records, as well:
Highest price for any black artist in the world. (Basquiat's father was from Haiti, and his mother was of Puerto Rican descent.)
First art piece created since 1980 to break the $100 million mark.
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