Head

Medium: 21 color screen-print on Museum Board
Year: 1983/2001
Sheet: 40×40 inches (101.6 x 101.6 cm)
Edition: 85
Artist’s Proofs: 15
Other: 15 Hors Commerce (HC), 5 Printer’s Proofs (PP), and 1 BAT
Publisher: DeSanctis Carr Fine Art, 2001

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’s earliest mature works, from 1980 to 1982, often featured painterly gestures in the composition of single images, usually skeletal figures or mask-like faces symbolizing his obsession with anatomy and mortality. Basquiat’s renderings of faces also evoked his continuous interest in art history, and particularly African art. Head, with its gritted teeth and bulging eyes amid swirling lines of primary colors evokes this passion while foregrounding his work within the neo-expressionist movement of the 1980’s.

One can see themes of inner and outer being explored in one of Basquiat’s most recognizable images Untitled (Head). Rendered in the artist’s signature contrasting bold colors, against the flat black background, the rounded white stretches are evocative of skull bones, while red and brown demarcate key facial features. Despite the ghoulish qualities of the skull, the head is expressive and vibrant, with alert eyes. The viewer cannot help but question Basquiat’s intention when confronted with this juxtaposition. The composite imagery of the skull within the articulated face plays to Basquiat’s complex understanding of the relationship between the inner self and the perception of the outer world. By presenting his difficult personal experiences, like racism, isolation, and drug addiction, Basquiat exposed the public to his innermost feelings and addressed universal struggles.

Basquiat’s thematic fixation on the head can be seen throughout his body of work—this is yet another iconic example of a motif that he visited and revisited during his tragically short career. The language of this image is reminiscent of 16th and 17th century vanitas still lifes that often incorporated skulls allegorizing the finality of death. Basquiat builds on this visual lineage while also exploring his own themes and interests. The figure displayed in this print is not quite a skull yet not quite a fully fleshed human; the head depicted exists in a liminal space. The exterior blue and brown lines suggest the presence of skin while the milky white interior seemingly depicts the color of its skull. Black wavy lines throughout the interior of the head bring to mind the grooves of the brain. The print is emblematic of Basquiat’s interest in dualities; in this instance life and death, interior and exterior, and light and dark.

 

 

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Auction Results

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Van Ham Cologne: 29 November 2023
Estimated: EUR 80,000
EUR 112,200 / USD 123,070

AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960 – 1988)
Head, from Portfolio I, 1983/2001
Screen-print in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Numbered in pencil PP 5/5 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 London: 17 March 2021
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 69,300

AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1966 – 1988)
Untitled (Head), 2001
Screen-print in colors on museum board
Numbered H.C. 9/15
An hors commerce impression aside from the edition of 85
With the Estate stamp verso, signed and numbered in pencil by Gerard Basquiat
The administrator of the Estate

Phillips New-York: 22 October 2020
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 70,000
USD 107,100

AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Head, 1983/2001
Screenprint in colors, on heavy wove paper
Numbered 66/85 in pencil on the front
Signed and dated ’11-19-01′ by Gerard Basquiat in pencil with the Estate stamp on the reverse

Phillips New-York: 24 April 2018
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 81,250

Phillips London: 25 January 2018
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 100,000

Sotheby’s New-York: 28 April 2017
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 40,000
USD 52,500

AFTER JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Untitled (Head), 2001
Screenprint in colors 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