Want more images or videos?

Request additional images or videos from the seller

1 of 8

Jean-Michel Basquiat
Basquiat (untitled) 'BAD'
1979

Name: Basquiat (untitled) 'BAD'
Brand: Jean-Michel Basquiat
Rating: 5 (267 reviews)

Price:$42,000

$75,000List Price

About the Item

Jean-Michel Basquiat (untitled), 'Bad', 1979 Basquiat produced this original collage for the fourth issue of author Luc Sante’s downtown-art scene publication, ‘Stranded’ (New York, 1980). The work was constructed under Basquiat’s post SAMO alias, ‘Man Made’, and was originally given to Sante to be xeroxed as an edition. The work falls directly in line with the 'cut-up' aesthetic of the artist's Anti-Product Cards and mixed media collages of the same year. Whereby, Basquiat took a found photograph (c. 1940s) of 13 white businessmen, covered their eyes with marker stripes, cut out their mouths and jaws and pushed down the resulting tabs and filled the gap with red ink; wrote "BAD" in black felt-tip marker across the top, and affixed them to a ragged sheet of found grid paper with masking tape, adding a glued-on cigarette butt at the lower right of the photo. Medium: Mixed-media collage affixed to lined paper Overall Dimensions: 11.5 x 13 inches (Image: 8 x 10 inches) Unique. One of a kind. This is the master work pre-xerox. Provenance: Luc Sante Unsigned (annotation on lower left is that of Sante's circa early 1990's) Condition: The work is presented as originally constructed by Basquiat using found objects in fair condition; as such, tear to mid-lower left and top center; scattered soiling, surface and creasing marks; fading, edge-wear and losses to lined paper; minor wear to back-side. Otherwise, well-preserved and stored in an archival setting for the last 39 years. Hand-written "Bad" is likewise well-preserved. Literature/References - 'Stranded' issue four index (Spring 1980). Basquiat's identity is confirmed as 'Man-Made' midway on page (see image 7 in listing). - Printed Matter, NY (October 2017; see image 5 in listing) - 'Basquiat Before Basquiat' (MCA Denver; see Sante, p.54, or image 6 in listing) - 'Zeitgeist: The Art Scene of Teenage Basquiat' (Howl Arts 2018; essay: 'Stranded' by Luc Sante) - 'An Intimate Look at Jean-Michel Basquiat's Early Days' by Luc Sante (Village Voice 2/8/17) - 'Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat,' by Sarah Driver (documentary, 2018; features above referenced index and interviews with Luc Sante) Basquiat as 'Man Made', see: - Glenn O'Brien "Graffiti '80;" High Times, June, 1980 (p. 53-54); "Jean-Michel Basquiat who is known to many as SAMO, had changed his alias to Man Made" - Sotheby's S2 Catalog & Sale, "Man Made" (May 2013) - Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1981, the Studio of the Street (Diego Cortez; 2007 p. 80) - The Last Time I Saw Basquiat (NYR Daily 9/3/16; essay by Luc Sante) - Basquiat: Boom For Real (Barbican; Nairne, Buchhart & Johnson p.26) Intertextual References 'Bad' motif also appears in the following 1979 works: - "Stupid Games, Bad Ideas" (color xerox; see Basquiat: Boom For Real pg. 108) - Basquiat (untitled) "Test Pattern" (original drawing and xerox; see Basquiat: Boom For Real pg. 147) - Basquiat (untitled) "Gumby Is Bad" t-shirt (worn by the artist at Canal Zone 1979) Basquiat Cigarette pasting(s): - See Basquiat: Boom For Real pg.111, for untitled mixed media on cardboard featuring pasted cigarette butts. Businessmen This character motif appears in several Basquiat mixed media collages and post cards in 1979 (please contact gallery for further references). Basquiat was likewise obsessed with the JFK Assassination Committee at the time. Likely parallels to the aforementioned are possible. Related Categories Basquiat Postcards. Basquiat Anti-Baseball Card Product. Basquiat Mixed Media Collage. SAMO. Basquiat Xerox.

Creator:
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988, American)
Creation Year:
1979
Dimensions:
Height: 11.5 in (29.21 cm)Width: 13 in (33.02 cm)
Medium:
Mixed Media
Movement & Style:
Pop Art
Period:
1980-1989
Condition:
Condition consistent with original construction by artist.
Gallery Location:
NEW YORK, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU35432774921

Shop All Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Emerging from the New York City street-art scene, Jean-Michel Basquiat would become one of the most significant artists of the 20th century as he mixed hand-scrawled text, vibrant color, gestural brushwork and themes of social commentary in a prolific output of Neo-Expressionist paintings. Although his pieces always retained the improvisational energy of graffiti, Basquiat used deceptively uncomplicated motifs such as crowns and professional boxers to honor the majesty and power of Black men and place himself in that lineage. Today, Basquiat’s art is among the most expensive in the world, with his paintings regularly fetching tens of millions of dollars at auction.

Born in Brooklyn to a Haitian-American father and Puerto Rican mother, Basquiat’s parents treated him to regular visits to New York City museums and nurtured his early talent for drawing cartoons. When he was hit by a car while playing in the street, Basquiat’s mother gave him a copy of the lushly illustrated medical reference book Gray’s Anatomy. Later, human bones and body parts such as skulls and rib cages would prove potent as subject matter for his provocative and spirited visual explorations of social issues as well as his own vulnerability and the struggles he faced as a Black artist.

As a teenager, Basquiat spray-painted city bridges with friend Al Diaz, and their “SAMO” tag caught the eyes of local artists. He left home before he was 20, selling hand-painted sweatshirts and postcards in Lower Manhattan. Because Basquiat was homeless — sleeping in parks and girlfriends’ apartments — he couldn’t afford proper canvases, and instead transformed found materials, such as old doors and windows, with paint and layered paper. The works vividly juxtaposed a street-art style with forms inspired by Abstract Expressionism.

Basquiat’s first public exhibition was “The Times Square Show” in 1980, a landmark event for artists experimenting with the boundaries between the galleries and the streets, with pieces by Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Kenny Scharf and Kiki Smith. His art soon garnered critical acclaim as well as the attention of collectors. Basquiat’s first solo show was at Soho’s Annina Nosei Gallery, in 1982, with another that year at Larry Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles. His star continued to rise with multiple exhibitions in Europe, a 1983 feature in the Whitney Biennial and inclusion in a 1984 exhibition of painting at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. But he found that racist stereotypes persisted in press coverage of him, even as his profile expanded, and friends contend that he was exploited by collectors and art dealers. He battled a heroin addiction for years, and at the age of 27, Basquiat died from an accidental drug overdose on August 12, 1988.

Although it mainly spanned from 1980 to 1988, Basquiat’s career in visual art involved hundreds of paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints and other works. This included collaborations with Andy Warhol, with whom he created a series of paintings between 1983 and 1985. Basquiat’s art has been exhibited in almost every major art museum in the world, and in 2017 his 1982 Untitled painting was sold for $110.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction.

Find a collection of original Jean-Michel Basquiat art on 1stDibs.

Seek OneBasquiat, 2025

$12,000

H 60 in W 48 in

Basquiat

By Seek One

Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL

Seek One Basquiat, 2025 Mixed media on wood panel 60 x 48 in (152.40 x 121.92 cm)

Category

2010s Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Wood

Jean-Michel BasquiatFAE Musée d'Art Contemporain (Sans titre) Poster /// Jean-Michel Basquiat Huge, 1993

$2,600Sale Price|56% Off

H 50.13 in W 35.63 in

FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain (Sans titre) Poster /// Jean-Michel Basquiat Huge

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in Saint Augustine, FL

Artist: (after) Jean-Michel Basquiat (American, 1960-1988) Title: "FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain (Sans titre) (Untitled)" Year: 1993 Medium: Original Offset-Lithograph, Exhibition Poster on light wove paper Limited edition: Unknown Printer: likely Multigraphic Lauber & Romagnoli, Renens, Switzerland Publisher: FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain, Pully-Lausanne, Switzerland Sheet size: 50.13" x 35.63" Reference: "Jean-Michel Basquiat" - FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain, page 39 (illustrated) Condition: Scattered mild handling creases to sheet. In otherwise excellent condition with full margins and clean edges We cannot find a single other example of this poster to have appeared on the secondary market or at auction ever before. Extremely rare Provenance: private collection - Hamburg, Germany. Poster produced for a special posthumous solo exhibition of Basquiat's work "Jean-Michel Basquiat" at FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain, Pully-Lausanne, Switzerland from July 10 to November 7, 1993. The image featured on this poster is Basquiat's 1982, 72" x 84.25", acrylic and oil stick on canvas painting which is untitled. Poster designed by Pierre Neumann (Swiss, 1951-). GIA Gallery Poster Disclaimer: Not to be confused with thousands of contemporary inkjet/giclée/digital reproductions ignorantly or deliberately passed off as originals on the market today. The examples we offer here are the original period vintage (exhibition) posters, created and designed by, or under the supervision and authorization of the artist or their respective estate (posthumously), for various exhibitions and events in which they participated. If applicable, this poster is also fully documented within its respective artists' official catalogue raisonné of authentic graphic works, prints, and or posters. Biography: Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 - August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980's as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved notoriety in the late 1970s as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al Diaz, writing enigmatic epigrams all over Manhattan, particularly in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side where rap, punk, and street art coalesced into early hip-hop music culture. By the early 1980s, his paintings were being exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. At 21, Basquiat became the youngest artist to ever take part in Documenta in Kassel, Germany. At 22, he was one of the youngest to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial in New York. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his artwork in 1992. Basquiat's art focused on dichotomies such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. He used social commentary in his paintings as a tool for introspection and for identifying with his experiences in the black community, as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism. His visual poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle. Since his death at the age of 27 in 1988, Basquiat's work has steadily increased in value. In 2017, "Untitled", a 1982 painting depicting a black skull with red and yellow rivulets, sold for a record-breaking $110.5 million, becoming one of the most expensive paintings...

Category

1990s Neo-Expressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Offset, Lithograph

Jean-Michel BasquiatOdours of Punt Screenprint, Basquiat Style, Framed, Edition of 60, 1983/2024

$121,000

H 84 in W 42 in D 2 in

Odours of Punt Screenprint, Basquiat Style, Framed, Edition of 60

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in New York, NY

The specific information regarding edition will be provided at the time of sale. Please contact the seller for more details. Created in 1983/2024, 'Odours of Punt' by Jean-Michel Ba...

Category

2010s Street Art Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Jean-Michel BasquiatPhooey Screenprint, Abstract Style, Signed Edition of 12, 1982/2021, 1985/2021

$205,000

H 44.25 in W 84.625 in

Phooey Screenprint, Abstract Style, Signed Edition of 12, 1982/2021

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in New York, NY

The specific information regarding edition will be provided at the time of sale. Please contact the seller for more details. Jean-Michel Basquiat was an influential artist who rose ...

Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Sax BerlinBASQUIAT : Caught in the Crossfire: Large Neo Expressionist Oil Painting, 2022

$25,000

H 78.75 in W 59.06 in

BASQUIAT : Caught in the Crossfire: Large Neo Expressionist Oil Painting

By Sax Berlin

Located in Brecon, Powys

Basquiat: Caught in the Crossfire is a very heartfelt and personal tribute to Basquiat and a large statement piece and with this painting Sax takes up the mantle and upgrades the con...

Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

Alexi TorresBasquiat, 2022

Price Upon Request

H 31 in W 23 in D 3 in

Basquiat

By Alexi Torres

Located in Woodmere, OH

Basquiat Thread Work on Canvas

Category

2010s Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Thread

Ty Joseph"BASQUIAT" Abstract Painting 36'x36' inch by Ty Joseph, 2019

$7,500

H 36 in W 36 in D 1.5 in

"BASQUIAT" Abstract Painting 36'x36' inch by Ty Joseph

By Ty Joseph

Located in Culver City, CA

"BASQUIAT" Abstract Painting 36'x36' inch by Ty Joseph From 7 L's series 2019 acrylic on canvas 36" x 36" inch * * * The meaning of L series * * * Althou...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

JisbarSigned Limited Edition Basquiat Giclée Print, 50x70 cm, 20 Copies, 2023

$470Sale Price|20% Off

H 19.69 in W 27.56 in D 0.08 in

Signed Limited Edition Basquiat Giclée Print, 50x70 cm, 20 Copies

By Jisbar

Located in PARIS, FR

Shipped rolled in a tube, unframed. Accompanied with the certificate of authenticity. Exclusive limited edition, numbered out of 20 pieces. Litography in colour on fine art paper: H...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints

Materials

Giclée

Jean-Michel Basquiat50 Cent Piece Screenprint, Abstract Art, Edition 40 of 60, 2020, 1982-83/2020

$88,200

H 33 in W 43.5 in D 2 in

50 Cent Piece Screenprint, Abstract Art, Edition 40 of 60, 2020

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in New York, NY

The specific information regarding edition will be provided at the time of sale. Please contact the seller for more details. Jean-Michel Basquiat was an influential artist who rose ...

Category

2010s Street Art Abstract Prints

Materials

Color, Screen

Jean-Michel BasquiatBasquiat, Chateau la Coste, 2019

$2,000Sale Price|20% Off

H 23.75 in W 15.75 in

Basquiat, Chateau la Coste

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in Fairfield, CT

Artist: After Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) Title: Chateau la Coste Year: 2019 Medium: Offset lithograph exhibition poster on wove paper Size: 23.75 x 15.75 inches Condition: Exce...

Category

2010s Pop Art Abstract Prints

Materials

Offset

More From This Seller

View All

Jean-Michel BasquiatBasquiat Gray 1980, 1980

Basquiat Gray 1980

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in NEW YORK, NY

Jean-Michel Basquiat (untitled) Gray 1980: Basquiat illustrated & printed this exceptionally rare flyer for his band Gray in 1980. Executed similarly in the manner of his well-documented Anti-Product Cards of the period - Basquiat draws over a found image, then employs his famous William Burroughs style 'cut-up' technique; completing the piece by abstractly scrawling the word, 'Gray' above. Few known to have survived. Not to be passed upon. Literature: Jean-Michel Basquiat 1981: The Studio of the Street', (Deitch, Cortez, Vassell); Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music (Buchhart, Bessières, Desmarais). Exhibited: Jean-Michel Basquiat 1981: The Studio of the Street: Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York, 2006; New York, New Music 1980-86: Museum of the City of New York (2021); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music (2022); Basquiat Soundtracks: The Philharmonie de Paris, 2023 (The Paris Philharmonic). Further background as follows: Medium: Color Xerox on paper. 1980. Dimensions: 8.5 x 11 inches. Condition: Good overall vintage condition; scattered soiling marks; minor signs of handling & aging; typewriting on the reverse; minor corner bending in one or more places. Unsigned from an edition of unknown; few known to have survived. Provenance: Obtained directly from a prominent Basquiat Gray...

Category

1980s Pop Art Prints and Multiples

Materials

Offset, Lithograph

Jean-Michel BasquiatJean-Michel Basquiat Annina Nosei Gallery NY 1982-1988 (Basquiat Annina Nosei), 1982-1988

Jean-Michel Basquiat Annina Nosei Gallery NY 1982-1988 (Basquiat Annina Nosei)

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in NEW YORK, NY

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, 1982-1988: A set of 3 rare vintage original Basquiat announcement cards from 1982, 1986, 1988, respectively - with 2 published d...

Category

1980s Pop Art More Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Jean-Michel BasquiatBasquiat Skateboard Deck, 2021

Basquiat Skateboard Deck

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in NEW YORK, NY

DC x Jean-Michel Basquiat Skateboard Deck: Limited edition Jean-Michel Basquiat Skateboard Deck licensed by the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat in conjunction with Artestar in 2021, f...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract More Art

Materials

Wood, Offset

Jean-Michel BasquiatJean-Michel Basquiat Gagosian gallery Los Angeles 1986 (exhibition poster), 1986

Jean-Michel Basquiat Gagosian gallery Los Angeles 1986 (exhibition poster)

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in NEW YORK, NY

Jean-Michel Basquiat Gagosian Gallery 1986: Original 1980’s Basquiat exhibition poster, published on the occasion of: Jean-Michel Basquiat at Larry Gagosian Gallery, 510 North Robert...

Category

1980s Pop Art Prints and Multiples

Materials

Paper

Jean-Michel BasquiatBasquiat La Jolla Museum of art 1985 (Basquiat Parameters), 1985

Basquiat La Jolla Museum of art 1985 (Basquiat Parameters)

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in NEW YORK, NY

Jean-Michel Basquiat La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, 1985: Rare vintage original 1980s exhibition program published on the occasion of: ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat Parameters’ La ...

Category

1980s Pop Art Prints and Multiples

Materials

Offset

Jean-Michel BasquiatBasquiat Tony Shafrazi Gallery 1999 monograph, 1999

Basquiat Tony Shafrazi Gallery 1999 monograph

By Jean-Michel Basquiat

Located in NEW YORK, NY

Jean-Michel Basquiat Tony Shafrazi Gallery 1999:  Rare limited edition 1999 hardcover Basquiat monograph published on the occasion of a key posthumous Basquiat exhibition held at Tony Shafrazi Gallery New York. The book is exquisitely printed & features an expansive survey of Basquiat artworks...

Category

1990s Pop Art More Art

Materials

Paper, Offset

What Does Jean-Michel Basquiat Mean to Us Today?

With a new book delving into his friendship with Andy Warhol and a spate of exhibitions examining his work through a contemporary lens, Basquiat’s powerful and poignant voice continues to resonate some three decades after his death.