Art

25 years after his death, Basquiat's market value soars due in no small part to hip-hop culture

He died in 1988 at age 27, becoming an instant myth, but a quarter of a century later Jean-Michel Basquiat is an ever-expanding phenomenon. You just have to listen to the lyrics of Jay Z and Kanye West, among other hip-hop greats, to hear them shout out his name. As Jay Z, who is also a collector of the artist’s work, memorably puts it, “Inspired by Basquiat, my chariot’s on fire/Everybody took shots, hit my body up, I’m tired.” Rap mogul Swizz Beatz wears his admiration on his arm—rather than his sleeve—which bears a Basquiat tattoo.

"As Jay Z memorably puts it, Inspired by Basquiat, my chariot’s on fire/ Everybody took shots, hit my body up, I’m tired."

Why now? “Forever in his 20s, it’s easy for young folks now to connect with him,” says Freddy Brathwaite (aka Fab Five Freddy), who knew Basquiat in the early 1980s and first introduced him to the burgeoning hip-hop culture which FFF himself helped launch. “Most importantly, the works literally speak, as they are filled with his words.” Moreover, the 2010 film The Radiant Child, directed by Tamra Davis, “which shows him talking and basically being himself,” introduced Basquiat to a whole new generation.

In celebrity status and bankability, Basquiat has left his ’80s peers in the dust. This past May, the artist broke all his former sales records when his 1982 painting “Dustheads” sold at Christie’s contemporary evening auction for $48.8 million—his price had almost doubled in just six months since his previous record of $26.4 million at Christie’s the previous November. And, although it has yet to be announced, at this November’s evening sale, Christie’s is offering another large Basquiat painting, “(Untitled, 1982)”, this one with an estimate of $25 million to $35 million.

Jean Michel Basquiat's Dustheads

Says Koji Inoue, specialist for Christie’s Contemporary Art evening sales, “Basquiat is getting due recognition—the key to the kingdom as you will. When you start to think about great painters, like Picasso, Richter, Prince, Basquiat has a seat at the table. He’s got his crown on his head. He is not only a cultural icon; he really embodies New York at its peak.”

Its not just the Basquiat market that has exponentially grown—so has the popular audience for his work. In February, the Gagosian gallery mounted a Basquiat blockbuster that included 59 major works and had people lining up around the block for days. Louise Neri, a director at the gallery, notes that the show averaged about 6,000 visitors a day—right up until the hour it closed, packed, in April.

“Basquiat was a superstar in his own time because he was unique—a very young artist who was beautiful, charismatic, cool—just a character and figure in every sense of the word,” says Neri. But he was more than that: “He was a man way ahead of his time. He was a bridge between cultures: art and music, art and poetry. People really delight in trolling for all of those references, from the Greek wars to fast food.”

"SOMETHING HAS TURNED OVER NOW, SOMETHING HAS CHANGED.... SOME OF MY COLLEAGUES THINK THAT IN OUR LIFETIMES WE WILL CERTAINLY SEE A PAINTING SELL FOR $100 MILLION.”-KOJI INOUE OF CHRISTIE’S"

In May, Sotheby’s held a show of 31 works in its second-floor gallery, S/2, in an exhibition called “Manmade: Jean Michel Basquiat.” It quickly sold out. The catalog essay was written by one of Basquiat’s old friends and early supporters, Glenn O’Brien. As O’Brien noted in his essay—the more Basquiats in a room, the better: “When his paintings are put together they almost have more power than one at a time; they interact with each other in a narrative way and put out this force field … He was electric. A tesla coil with dreadlocks—cool fire emanating wherever he went … I hope he can somehow feel the love that he gets now, more and more from bigger and bigger crowds.”

The artist’s legacy has never been more alive and well. And several recent developments have done nothing to change that. When his father, Gerard, died in July, he left an estate valued at $45 million and some interesting questions—including an IRS audit into the $8.5 million in taxes he paid in 2010. (Gerard had refused gallery representation for his son’s work for years, preferring to control it entirely himself.) Last September, the authentication committee that put the seal of approval on Jean-Michel’s work disbanded, making it more difficult to prove the provenance of some lesser-known works. But few doubt that Basquiat’s reputation will continue to soar.

Says Inoue, who classifies Basquiat as a major artist in an emerging category (‘Contemporary Classic’), “Something has turned over now, something has changed. He has international recognition—major retrospectives have taken place around the world,” she says. “Some of my colleagues think that in our lifetimes we will certainly see a painting sell for $100 million.”

As Larry Warsh, one of the first to collect the young artist, and who published several of his cryptic, poetic notebooks way back in 1981, puts it, “Basquiat has the same ability to reach wide audiences today as Andy Warhol, in terms of the wide net he has cast. He figured out the keys and the doorway into the minds and attitudes of the masses today, of pop culture, of young people, through the visual language he created so many years ago. The world caught up with him—and wants him.”

Dustheads image in body courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. 2013.