Wolf Sausage
Medium: Screen-print in colors on 300gsm Somerset Satin Paper
Year: 1982-83/2019
Sheet: 22×30 inches (55.9 x 76.2 cm)
Edition: 50
Artist’s Proofs: 20
Other Editions: 5 Printer’s Proofs (PP), 1 BAT
Publisher: Flatiron Editions, New-York, 2019
Each screen-print bears the signatures of Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, Administrators of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat on verso, as well as the stamps of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Flatiron Editions
Wolf Sausage seems to be divided into a haphazard grid, much of which covered by a layer of paint which obscures the sketches and text that lie beneath. The depiction of a token with the words ‘comics code’ brings the piece into parallel with a cartoon. The mantra-like saying which is written at the top of the image “in god we trust / in god we trust” and robotically repeated across the piece, clashes against the text reading ‘Liberty’ which surrounds it. The image of a dog with a top hat, which appears to loom menacingly over much of the piece, recalls the humanization of animals in a number of Basquiat works through adornment. In Trophy, a penguin dons a top hat. In Pez Dispenser, a dinosaur wears a majestic gold crown.
Auction Results
Phillips London: 10 September 2020
Estimated: GBP 10,000 – 15,000
GBP 18,750
AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Wolf Sausage, 1982-1983/2019
Screen-print in colors
Numbered 16/50 in pencil on the front
Signed and dated ‘4/30/19’ by Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux in pencil on the Estate stamp
(on the reverse)