JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960-1988)
Chicken Wings Three, 1983
Acrylic and Xerox collage on metal
35 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches (90.2 x 90.2 cm)

Provenance
Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
Edward Totah Gallery, London
Private collection, Switzerland
Galleria Tornabuoni, Milan
Private collection, Milan
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Auction History
Christie’s New-York: 14 May 2024
Estimated: USD 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
USD 2,409,500

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960-1988), Chicken Wings Three | Christie’s (christies.com)

Containing the raw energy of street art with a nuanced approach to art history, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s unprecedented oeuvre set the stage for a new understanding of art at the end of the twentieth century. Chicken Wings Three, realized during a key point in Basquiat’s regrettably short career, is a prime example of the young artist’s ability to create dynamic compositions densely packed with visual information. It was executed in 1983, the same year that he was included in the Whitney Biennial, as the youngest artist to ever participate in the exhibition at the age of 22. It was also during this time that he joined the group of artists at Mary Boone’s gallery and became better acquainted with Andy Warhol. He had been introduced to the Pop artist the year before by dealer Bruno Bischofberger, and the ensuring friendship had an immense effect on both artists. Though Basquiat was not aligned officially with the tenets of American Pop, his use of Xerox machines and image manipulation in conjunction with expressive abstraction helped to cement his larger practice within the annals of art history.

Collaged onto a metal backing, a variety of Xerox copies are arranged in a raucous manner. Diagrams, drawings, and text in multiple languages cover the surface while creating radical juxtapositions of disparate subjects and ideas. Printed with black ink on white paper, the lines are clear and precise while also exhibiting Basquiat’s trademark knack for enlivening even the most simple mark with an inherent vitality. Human heads, cars, globes, tools, and a Godzilla-like creature are dispersed over the work’s surface alongside lists of minerals, diagrams, and references to currency and alchemy. The apparent disorder and chaos of these competing ideas somehow coalesce into a discrete image that illustrates Basquiat’s thought process and insatiable curiosity about the world around him. “There is the sense that what Basquiat presents results from a mind less dependent upon hierarchical and declarative judgment,” mused art historian and curator Fred Hoffman. “In presenting all that he portrayed as being of equal value, Basquiat presented himself as that non-judgmental observer who approached his subjects with a certain detachment, without an agenda, a need to separate out, to choose or select” (F. Hoffman, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Drawing, exh. cat., Acquavella, New York, 2014, p. 39). The overwhelming nature of daily life made its way readily into works like Chicken Wings Three where competing points of interest jockey for the viewer’s attention. Over the top of this visual array, the artist has added a layer of translucent color. At times, the pages are obscured by dark areas of paint or thicker applications of acrylic, but the overriding hue of the work is a deep vermilion that spreads from edge to edge in an expanse of ruby tint. Where the collage is most difficult to see, the painterly application of color results in thick, visible brushstrokes that contrast with the linear quality of the Xeroxes and the mechanical nature of their replication.

Drawings from Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook, early 16th century. British Library, London.
Photo: British Library / The Art Archive at Art Resource, New York. 

Chicken Wings Three is a poignant example of Basquiat’s lifelong love affair with the act and art of drawing. Doodles, drafts, and sketches were the basis for his practice as he worked out ideas and crafted a discrete visual vocabulary on sheets of copier paper before committing them to canvas. Often, using mechanical means, he would duplicate, enlarge, and edit his originals to create a new amalgam that opened up a doorway to further information. “Drawing, for [Basquiat], was something you did rather than something done, an activity rather than a medium,” explained Robert Storr. “The seemingly throw-away sheets that carpeted his studio might appear little more than warm-ups for painting, except that the artist, a shrewd connoisseur of his own off-hand and underfoot inventions, did not in fact throw them away, but instead kept the best for constant reference and re-use.  By repurposing sketches and studies, Basquiat was able to create a cohesive collection of images that connected through various media. Symbols, motifs, and specific phrases often found their way into disparate formats and established a potent sense of the artist and his worldview throughout his oeuvre.