Untitled (Ernok)
Medium: 21 color screen-print on Saunders 410 Hot Press watercolor paper
Year: 1983/2001
Sheet: 40 x40 inches (101.6 x 101.6 cm)
Edition: 85
Artist’s Proofs: 15 AP
Other: 15 HC (Hors Commerce), 5 PP (Printer’s Proofs), and 1 BAT
Publisher: DeSanctis Carr Fine Art, Los Angeles
Printer: Brand X Editions, New York
Each screen-print bears the signature of Gerard Basquiat, Administrator of The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat on verso, as well as the stamps of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and DeSanctis Carr Fine Art.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, who began visiting the Brooklyn Museum as early as five years of age, consistently looked to the history of Modern Art as an inspiration for his own art. Ernok shows his early painterly style and the influence of Art Brut sensibilities to accommodate his message. The portrait is rough and aggressively drawn, rejecting the conservative element of perspective, with one arm down and the other gesturing a salutary greeting. Basquiat’s early stylistic marks, including masklike faces and an emphasis on the eyes are all present there. It is also early evidence of the synthesis between text and image that would be the artist’s claim to fame.
In his bold and colorful style, Basquiat reintroduced elements absent from the minimalistic and abstract work of his predecessors, namely the human figure. An early interest in the human form, and a gifted copy of Grey’s Anatomy, sparked and fueled the repeated presence of skulls, and disembodied parts in many of Basquiat’s compositions. Untitled (Ernok) features, a man with an x-ray view of veins in a transparent right hand. He too seems surprised by the state of his hand, blurring the usually firm line between the internal and the external self. Basquiat initiates the viewer in a questioning of the body by making an internal process visible. This close examination of the body reflects how the artist and others like him were made to consider themselves, physically and otherwise, in society. Basquiat’s revelation confronts the day-to-day experience of those othered by society.
Auction Results
Van Ham Cologne: 29 November 2023
Estimated: EUR 80,000
EUR 118,800 / USD 130,305
AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960 – 1988)
Ernok, from Portfolio I, 1982/2001
Screen-print in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Numbered in pencil AP 3/15 and with the stamped Certificate of Authenticity signed in pencil and dated verso by Gerard Basquiat, the executor of the Jean-Michel Basquiat Estate
Sotheby’s New-York: 21 October 2021
Estimated: USD 60,000 – 80,000
USD 126,000
AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960 – 1988)
Untitled (Ernok), 2001
Screen-print in colors on Saunders 410 Hot Press watercolor paper
Numbered 43/85 (total edition includes 15 artist’s proofs)
Signed in pencil on the verso by Gerard Basquiat, the administrator of the artist’s estate
Dated, with the estate stamp on the verso, and with their inkstamp on the verso
Sotheby’s London: 17 March 2021
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 69,300
AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1966 – 1988)
Untitled (Ernok), 2001
Screenprint in colors on museum board
Numbered H.C. 9/15
An hors commerce impression aside from the edition of 85 (total edition includes 15 artist’s proofs)
With the Estate stamp verso, signed and dated in pencil by Gerard Basquiat
The administrator of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Christie’s New-York: 20 October 2020
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 70,000
USD 100,000
AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960-1988)
Untitled (Ernok), 2001
Screenprint in colors on Saunders paper
Numbered ‘HC 3/15′ in pencil on the reverse
With Gerard Basquiat’s signature in pencil and dated ’11-10.01’ on the reverse
Sotheby’s London: 17 September 2019
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 43,750
AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1966 – 1988)
UNTITLED (ERNOK), 2021
Screenprint in colors on Saunders 410 Hot Press watercolor paper
after the painting from 1982-83
Numbered H.C. 4/15
An hors commerce impression aside from the edition of 85
With the estate stamp verso, signed in pencil and dated by Gerard Basquiat
The administrator of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Sotheby’s New-York: 28 April 2017
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 40,000
USD 60,000
AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Untitled (Ernok), 2001
Screenprint in colors on watercolor paper on Saunders 410 Hot Press watercolor paper
With the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat stamp on the verso
Signed by Gerard Basquiat in pencil and dated
Numbered 83/85 on the recto
Christie’s London: 15 March 2016
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 37,500
AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Untitled (Ernok), 2001
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Signed and dated in pencil on the reverse by the artist’s father, Gerard Basquiat
Numbered 58/85 (there were also 15 artist’s proofs)