安迪·沃荷

Jean-Michel Basquiat (acquired directly from the artist)
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Exh. Cat., Milan, Fondazione Le Triennale di Milano, The Jean-Michel Basquiat Show, 2006, p. 27, illustrated in color (with the artist in his Grand Street Studio, 1987)

This work is in very good condition overall. There is scattered soiling to the surface as is typical of works located in Basquiat's studio where this painting was kept for some time. The scattered drops of yellow accretions, primarily in the center of the bottom edge, are also likely pigment from the artist's studio. There are scattered areas of very light handling marks and surface soiling, particularly along the edges and scattered in an area extending up to 4 ½" up from the bottom edge. There is a small brown spot accretion 5" from the bottom and 15 ½" from the right edge, and another linear accretion along the bottom edge, extending 2" in from the bottom right corner. There are a few horizontal linear creases, with slight cracking to the pigment, likely occurring prior to stretching, which appear stable and are located as follows: ---11" down from the top edge and extending the width of the top third of the canvas---10" up from the bottom edge and stretching 42" in from the right---an 8" crease, extending in from the right edge and 6 ¼" up from the bottom. Close inspection reveals two faint diagonal scuffs, one 8" in length between the legs of the proper right figure and the other 4" in length near the neck of the proper left figure. Under ultraviolet light there are no apparent restorations. The painting is not framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Almost four centuries after Michelangelo majestically carved his monumental David out of a single block of Carrara marble, Andy Warhol executed Portrait of Jean-Michel as David, a superbly rendered, complexly layered, and remarkably intimate characterization of his collaborator, protégé, friend and sometimes competitor Jean-Michel Basquiat. Standing at an immense 90 inches tall, Warhol’s painting of the Adonic young Basquiat standing doubled in the classical Renaissance contrapposto mirrors the original David in scale, towering over the viewer to convey the extensive prominence and rising power of Basquiat’s art-world star during this period in the mid-1980s. As the peerless Michelangelo played God, creating man from inanimate material, this rare painting sees Warhol experimenting with his own divine endowments as the undisputed godfather of Pop art. “If Warhol was the father of pop art, Basquiat was the father of contemporary art, an artist’s artist, who has influenced and still influences many who are active today.” (Christian Gether in Exh. Cat., Arken, Museum of Modern Art, Warhol & Basquiat, 2011, p. 6)

The present work offers a unique window into the relationship between the ringleader Warhol and the wunderkind Basquiat, two individually eminent artistic voices of the Twentieth Century whose fertile partnership spawned the production of over 100 collaborative paintings, while also fundamentally impacting the development of one another’s distinctive styles. Prior to the initiation of their relationship at the instigation of the legendary Zurich gallerist Bruno Bischofberger in 1983, Basquiat obsessively revered Warhol, attempting on several occasions to meet his role model—Warhol being the progenitor of the graphic Pop art style that paved the way for the young painter. In turn, Warhol was enamored by Basquiat’s infectious charisma and energy, a youthful fervor exemplified when Basquiat zealously painted a double portrait of the two artists and had it delivered to the Factory within hours of meeting Warhol, the canvas still wet. They would paint several portraits of each other over the course of their impassioned and volatile relationship, both infatuated with each other’s celebrity and artistic genius. Notably, Basquiat’s unwavering enthusiasm prompted Warhol to pick up a paintbrush after almost 20 years of eschewing painting in favor of the silkscreen.

Warhol was undoubtedly captivated not only by the gifted Basquiat’s prowess, but also by the beauty of the painter’s young athletic body, bared here to emulate the heroicism of the classical Greek male ready for battle. In 1983, Warhol captured Jean-Michel in a series of revealing Polaroids. Stripped down to only a white jockstrap and his body carefully posed to mimic Michelangelo’s sensational David, each of Warhol’s snapshots of Basquiat zooms in on a particular section of the artist’s figure. To create the silkscreen template employed for Portrait of Jean-Michel as David, Warhol stacked the square images against one another like the building blocks of a puzzle, resulting in the fragmentary and disjunctive figure seen duplicated in the present work. Warhol pays particular attention to Basquiat’s hands, here multiplied in various gestural motions, a nod to Warhol’s admiration for the painter’s dexterity and innate talent as draftsman.

Yet, while Basquiat reinvigorated Warhol’s energies, there was also an implicit competition that Warhol most certainly felt in the presence of his younger counterpart—an impending challenge to his throne. In the present work, Warhol assumes the role of authority, helpful in Basquiat’s rise to fame through Warhol’s introductions and legitimation. In acting as creator, signaled by the collage-like accumulation of polaroids that visually represents Warhol’s “building” a perfect specimen, Warhol aggressively asserts his own sense of predominance over his mentee. Of course Warhol respected and admired his student, but in stepping back and admiring what he created, he projects his eminent, paternal status. In making explicit reference to David, moreover, Warhol aligns himself with Michelangelo, a self-conscious assertion of art historical dominance.

Portrait of Jean-Michel as David revisits a widely celebrated composition that Warhol first developed in the seminal 1963 painting Double Elvis, the frontally posed male figure duplicated before the same luminous silver background. Not only does Warhol’s self-citation twenty years after he painted Double Elvis conceptually align with the artist’s well-documented, boundary-pushing interest in seriality and repetition, but referencing his past paintings also signifies the artist’s own self-aggrandization in the present work. Meanwhile, the doubling of Basquiat’s figure formally emphasizes the notion of mechanical reproduction, reading clearly from left to right as his left foot steps outward, pictorially punctuating the figures rolling off an assembly line. The present work, while an alluring model of Warhol’s outstanding visual bravura, is significant for the light it sheds into the dynamic between the two paramount artists—a private glimpse into what was an exceedingly public affair. “It was like some crazy-art world marriage and they were the odd couple. The relationship was symbiotic. Jean-Michel thought he needed Andy's fame, and Andy thought he needed Jean-Michel's new blood. Jean-Michel gave Andy a rebellious image again." (Ronny Cutrone in Victor Bockris, Warhol: The Biography, Cambridge, 2003, pp. 461-462)