JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT | Untitled (Sophisticated Lady)

Executed in 1987.

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg
La Nuova Città, Brescia
Christie's, London, February 9, 2007, lot 442
Private Collection, Tokyo
Sotheby's, New York, May 13, 2009, lot 402
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

This work is accompanied by a certificate issued by the Authentication Committee of The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Salzburg, Austria, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1987
Brescia, La Nuova Città, Jean-Michel Basquiat, October - November 1988
Monaco, Galerie Pierre Nouvion, James Brown-JM Basquiat, December 1992 - January 1993
Milan, Museo delle Culture, Jean-Michel Basquiat, October 2016 - February 2017, pp. 164-165, illustrated in color (incorrectly dated)
Rome, Chiostro del Bramante, Jean-Michel Basquiat: New York City, March - July 2017, p. 112, illustrated in color
Sao Paulo; Brasilia; Belo Horizonte; Rio de Janeiro, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Obras da Colecao Mugrabi, January 2018 - January 2019, p.159, illustrated in color

Although Basquiat is primarily a visual artist, the written word has always had enormous importance in his practice. The artist was very aware of the associative power of language and used it with a uniquely original style. This drawing uses an improvised spelling of the work ‘sophisticated’, which is here spelled as SFISSTCKADED, which is further repeated another five times in the work. Repetition and the crossing out of words (as here in the first half of the sentence ‘it don’t mean a thing’) were often used by Basquiat, who was also closely involved in the booming hip-hop and rap scene in New York at this time.