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Basquiat's "Versus Medici" auction at Sotheby's

AgnesGooch

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I am watching this auction. Can't afford to make a bid obviously! Still art/art history interests me. It takes place on May 12th. The pre-sale estimate is $50million dollars but I think it will go for much more, much more and could break a record. The highest Basqiuat painting sold was $110 million. I think this will approach the $100 million mark.

Here are a couple of articles about it.

1. https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/jean-michel-basquiats-phenomenal-versus-medici-comes-to-auction

2. Subverting Art History, Basquiat’s ‘Versus Medici’ To Fetch As Much As $50 Million, On Heels Of $41.9 Million Record Asia Sale


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Nana Peazant

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It will be interesting to see if a Black man purchases Versus Medici. I feel sad for all the Basquiats that are locked up in rich white folks' houses which was never Jean-Michel's intent.
 

AgnesGooch

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It will be interesting to see if a Black man purchases Versus Medici. I feel sad for all the Basquiats that are locked up in rich white folks' houses which was never Jean-Michel's intent.

Yes even this painting was owned by some multi millionaire Belgian person. I imagine some asian or white person and/or group will purchase this one.
 

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It will be interesting to see if a Black man purchases Versus Medici. I feel sad for all the Basquiats that are locked up in rich white folks' houses which was never Jean-Michel's intent.
A black man would possibly purchase a European art piece or some gaudy LV furniture or custom piece.
 

Babygirlmari

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A black man would possibly purchase a European art piece or some gaudy LV furniture or custom piece.
Very likely, but you'd be surprised some people really are taping into their pro-blackness at this time.

I could see some elite bougie black people buying Basquiat pieces.
 

sexychunky

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That's a fabulous piece. I'd put it in a living room with a burnt orange or indigo chaise lounge chair
 

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Basquiat is absolutely fabulous. If I had the money, I'd definitely own a piece too.

In the coming years with NFT's the average person will start to understand the economics behind buying art pieces as a money-holding asset.

You and I may not be able tp afford a million dollar piece but I really think more people will start holding money in non-banking assets--like unique art. Even if you buy a unique piece that is $200...more people will start investing in this way, imo.
 

Ashy to Ashes

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Can someone explain to me what makes this painting so brilliant? Looking for serious answers.
 

NY_Mami

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It will be interesting to see if a Black man purchases Versus Medici. I feel sad for all the Basquiats that are locked up in rich white folks' houses which was never Jean-Michel's intent.

Basquiat is the only Black artist they know... just recently there was a Black artist who called out YT’s and Chinese art collectors who purchased Black Artists work last year as apart of the Black Square Movement and then sold then sold them back to Auction lots for a quick buck....
 

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I am watching this auction. Can't afford to make a bid obviously! Still art/art history interests me. It takes place on May 12th. The pre-sale estimate is $50million dollars but I think it will go for much more, much more and could break a record. The highest Basqiuat painting sold was $110 million. I think this will approach the $100 million mark.

Here are a couple of articles about it.

1. https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/jean-michel-basquiats-phenomenal-versus-medici-comes-to-auction

2. Subverting Art History, Basquiat’s ‘Versus Medici’ To Fetch As Much As $50 Million, On Heels Of $41.9 Million Record Asia Sale


960x0.jpg


How can you watch the auction? Will it live stream somewhere?
 
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I echo the sentiment of everyone here, I would love to own a Basquiat work. I wonder how much it will garner

I cant stop thinking baout that damn "made you look" art documentary on Netflix though. My dumb*ss would be the one to get got in the end since I am an art lover/appreciator but not an art critic!
 

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Can someone explain to me what makes this painting so brilliant? Looking for serious answers.
Versus Medici is one of Basquiat's most famous works, if not the most famous. It is his own retelling of the Italian Renaissance Movement. He uses the iconography and structure of the time to re-center it in his context. The art piece is saying I am before and I am after. Or in comparison with the Medici family, a metaphor for aristocracy, this is who I am. Who is he? A king, symbolized by the a crown in the bloodline of Amenhotep (written in Greek three times). He starts to draw all the organs denoting the humanity of this man and scribbles it out with pink. Beneath we see the heart, the boat in the lungs (seafarer, breathing in ocean water, born in water - Basquiat was Puerto Rican & Haitian). Rather than bone, sinew is sort of etched with the straight lines as in "this is what I'm made of" There's more to this including color theory but Versus Medici is a signifier of saying I am before and after. I am math (the triangle and lines, center piece). I am art. I am the descendant and ancestor of the Vitruvian Man.
 

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Can someone explain to me what makes this painting so brilliant? Looking for serious answers.
It is the way he uses the elements of art and principles of design to tell a story through his art. Art is a language. All languages have an alphabet. The alphabet of Art is the Elements Line, color, shape, form, space, texture, value. All of those elements come together to make words that are the principles. Just like any poet or good writing the artist uses symbolism and metaphores to tell a good story. He uses the principles like a writer uses irony, metaphors and symbols to tell a story.

All of his works make references to art history, anatomy, jazz, history and black history/racism and his hatian Puertorican background. This is a reference to the Medici family who lived in Italy. They were huge art patrons. Very powerful but corrupt family.


The figure takes on a skeletal frame that is a reference to the Grays Anatomy books he read as a child. You can see what looks to be a stomach drawn in purple

He crosses out words that are references to bigger concepts to make the viewer pay closer attention to his work.

He is also making commentary the rules of fine art. Art back then was mainly a white males craft. Black artist were not taken seriously and welcomed the way they are now. Art was white. So he breaking the rules of fine art with race and technique.

This is just my interpretation. I believe Basquiats work deals with the reality of black male idols, in white western spaces. The black figures that often show up in his work, I believe represent the western world's stereotypes of black males in white spaces. They don't see the man, they see the color, or something that should be feared. That is why his work has a deep dark black figure almost like a S@mbo stereotype that shows up from time to time.

When I showed a picture of Basquiat during a presentation to my professors they gasped. Like he was moster. It was a white woman too. As intelligent and beautiful as he was, she still gasped in shock. They had never heard of him either. His work was sold for more than Van Gogh. I think that sums up a lot of his work.
 

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It is the way he uses the elements of art and principles of design to tell a story through his art. Art is a language. All languages have an alphabet. The alphabet of Art is the Elements Line, color, shape, form, space, texture, value. All of those elements come together to make words that are the principles. Just like any poet or good writing the artist uses symbolism and metaphores to tell a good story. He uses the principles like a writer uses irony, metaphors and symbols to tell a story.

All of his works make references to art history, anatomy, jazz, history and black history/racism and his hatian Puertorican background. This is a reference to the Medici family who lived in Italy. They were huge art patrons. Very powerful but corrupt family.


The figure takes on a skeletal frame that is a reference to the Grays Anatomy books he read as a child. You can see what looks to be a stomach drawn in purple

He crosses out words that are references to bigger concepts to make the viewer pay closer attention to his work.

He is also making commentary the rules of fine art. Art back then was mainly a white males craft. Black artist were not taken seriously and welcomed the way they are now. Art was white. So he breaking the rules of fine art with race and technique.

This is just my interpretation. I believe Basquiats work deals with the reality of black male idols, in white western spaces. The black figures that often show up in his work, I believe represent the western world's stereotypes of black males in white spaces. They don't see the man, they see the color, or something that should be feared. That is why his work has a deep dark black figure almost like a S@mbo stereotype that shows up from time to time.

When I showed a picture of Basquiat during a presentation to my professors they gasped. Like he was moster. It was a white woman too. As intelligent and beautiful as he was, she still gasped in shock. They had never heard of him either. His work was sold for more than Van Gogh. I think that sums up a lot of his work.
Thanks! Very insightful.
 

ChihulyGlass

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Versus Medici is one of Basquiat's most famous works, if not the most famous. It is his own retelling of the Italian Renaissance Movement. He uses the iconography and structure of the time to re-center it in his context. The art piece is saying I am before and I am after. Or in comparison with the Medici family, a metaphor for aristocracy, this is who I am. Who is he? A king, symbolized by the a crown in the bloodline of Amenhotep (written in Greek three times). He starts to draw all the organs denoting the humanity of this man and scribbles it out with pink. Beneath we see the heart, the boat in the lungs (seafarer, breathing in ocean water, born in water - Basquiat was Puerto Rican & Haitian). Rather than bone, sinew is sort of etched with the straight lines as in "this is what I'm made of" There's more to this including color theory but Versus Medici is a signifier of saying I am before and after. I am math (the triangle and lines, center piece). I am art. I am the descendant and ancestor of the Vitruvian Man.
I agree, I always felt as if Basquiat showed the structure of the human form ( bones, lungs, heart, stomach) to show the vulnerability of black males. Like you said, "this is what I am made of'" I think he challenges the thought that black people aren't intelligent enough to make art. There once was a time when people thought the art of Africa was primitive, so in their minds the culture and people were primitive. But as we learn more and more about history we find that black people were the originators of Math, Architecture, Science, Art, and so on.
 

Ashy to Ashes

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Versus Medici is one of Basquiat's most famous works, if not the most famous. It is his own retelling of the Italian Renaissance Movement. He uses the iconography and structure of the time to re-center it in his context. The art piece is saying I am before and I am after. Or in comparison with the Medici family, a metaphor for aristocracy, this is who I am. Who is he? A king, symbolized by the a crown in the bloodline of Amenhotep (written in Greek three times). He starts to draw all the organs denoting the humanity of this man and scribbles it out with pink. Beneath we see the heart, the boat in the lungs (seafarer, breathing in ocean water, born in water - Basquiat was Puerto Rican & Haitian). Rather than bone, sinew is sort of etched with the straight lines as in "this is what I'm made of" There's more to this including color theory but Versus Medici is a signifier of saying I am before and after. I am math (the triangle and lines, center piece). I am art. I am the descendant and ancestor of the Vitruvian Man.
Thanks! What do you think the crossed-out 37 means?
 

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