This year, Jean-Michel Basquiat (Jean-MichelBasquiat, 1960-1988) would have turned 50 years old. In honor of the "jubilee" of the famous painter, who started his career with the mural of the New York subway, the prestigious Basel Foundation Beyeler arranged a major retrospective of his work (9 May - 5 September). The exhibition will soon travel to the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, where it will go from 15 October to 30 January 2011. Contrary to expectations of those who in the 1980 Basquiat considered ephemeral, interest in his work and does not think wane: so Artprice.com recently reported that the auction revenue over the past 12 months of Basquiat ranked first among the works of contemporary painters like so and modern graphics.

first acquaintance of the New York art galleries of the public with works of Basquiat was held in February 1981 (exhibition of New York /New Wave in the center of PS1). Prior to that, the artist made a living selling ornamented shirts and homemade cards. One of the first buyers Basquiat was Andy Warhol (Andy Warhol), who later became his friend and mentor. The master and his protege, created about 60 joint works, where cold pop aesthetic of the first combined with the expressionism of the second, at public auction appeared four such works, the most interesting of which brought in May this year, 2.3 million dollars.

Favor "father of Pop Art" has become one of the factors behind the tremendous success Basquiat. In 1982, he became the youngest artist of all that were invited to the exhibition Documenta 7 in Kassel, a year later, his "underground" paintings were shown in the Gagosian Gallery and the Whitney Museum Biennial. Demand for his work increased in times, and auction houses have begun to include the work of the former "street artists" in their catalogs. In May 1986, Sotheby's sold the painting "Hector" (1983) for 23,000 dollars. Today, such a fabric would be worth at least 100 times more.

After Basquiat's death from an overdose prices of his works began to grow at a breakneck pace. Three months after the tragedy, Christie's auctioned the work in 1981 with estimeytom 25 thousand dollars, the buyer laid out for her 100 thousand. A few days later the same scenario was repeated at Sotheby's (c painting "Red Rabbit"). In 1989, at the peak of market euphoria, the prices of Basquiat first crossed the mark of 200 thousand dollars (work "Equal», Sotheby's, estimate 70-90 thousand). The first seven-digit result was recorded on Nov. 12, 1998, when evaluated in the "modest" 400-600 thousand "Self Portrait" (1982) went to Christie's for 3 million.

In 2007, the annual auction revenue Basquiat grew 278%to 102 million dollars. He finished 7 th place in Top-10 artists on auction turnover in the money found between the giants of modernism, Henri Matisse (Henri Matisse) and Fernand Leger (Fernand Léger). His work began to bring much more profit at resale: for example, painting "Warrior", acquired in November of 2005 for 1.6 million dollars, two years later was bought for the equivalent of 5 million. Bidding Sotheby's May 15, 2007 marked the first of his eight-place result: a picture of a nameless 1981 laid out 13 million dollars.

In the period from July 2009 to July 2010 18 paintings of the artist brought the total approximately $ 35 million, and 23 graphic works - about 3 million. Investing in Basquiat believed to be reliable, and as its market to judge the "health" of the art market. Especially clear picture can be obtained if the market monitor the fate of those of his works, which are often resold. An example of such works - painting "Joy", in the last two years changed ownership three times. In February 2008, several months before the recession, the work was sold at Phillips de Pury for 1,7 million dollars, nine months later she lost 53%of its value by going for 670,000. June 2, 2010 "Joy" appeared at Sotheby's in Paris with an estimate 700-900 thousand euros, and found a buyer for 1,25 million (1,53 million dollars).

During his short life of Basquiat created about a thousand paintings and about 1,5 thousand (according to other sources - from 2 to 3 thousand) images. Good selling works of all periods and techniques. For the small drawing executed in pencil, give an average of 13 to 25 thousand dollars for a color image - from 65 to 315 thousand. Less than 8000 are less than 10%of his works, most of them - the prints (which constitute 14%of its auction market). Sell it cheap, and some graphic sheets: in December 2009, the French auction house Millon-Cornette de Saint Cyr sold a five-ink drawings by Basquiat price from 4,6 to 7,2 thousand euros (from 5,8 to 9,1 thousand dollars ). Sometimes the lottery product ranked higher than a unique work: for example, print "Academic study male figure, released 13 copies of copies, is estimated at 10-13 thousand dollars.

material prepared Yulia Maksimova, AI

Source: artprice.com , artinvestment.ru

P. S. Read on site ARTinvestment.RU:

The documentary film about Jean-Michel Basquiat