translated by Giorgina Arcuri

A few days ago Sotheby’s auction house announced that on 1st July, during the “Contemporary Art Evening Sale” that will be held at the London venue in New Bond Street, a very interesting work will be auctioned, a work that is interesting not only for economic-artistic reasons, but also because it has been for years a masterpiece in the hands of the star system world.
It is “Untitled (Pecho/Oreja)” executed by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982-1983, a mixed-technique canvas that U2, legendary Irish rock band, bought out of fun almost twenty years ago. The idea of the purchase had been recommended heartedly by bass player Adam Clayton, who talked with the group leader, Bono Vox, who then gave the final approval. The painting comes from U2’s collection, who bought it 1989 at the New York Robert Miller Gallery: since then “Untitled (Pecho/Oreja)” has always been displayed in their recording studio in Dublin. At last, the masterpiece of this talented artist will leave U2’s private environment, to return in circulation within the economy of art. Indeed, Sotheby’s has announced that the canvas will be offered to the public in the auction room with an initial estimate included between 4 and 6 million pounds (about 5-7 million euros).
Basquiat started working on the piece when he was only 22 years old, in a period when the artist was supported by some of the most famous International galleries, including the Gagosian in Los Angeles and Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich, ready to organize spectacular exhibitions for him.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was one of the most original and at the same time one of the most representative artists of the eighties. An author who embodies the parable of excesses and success in the America dominated by yuppies, when the street boy is catapulted into the golden world of art. Born in the New York district of Brooklyn, from Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother, at the age of seventeen he signs the walls of Manhattan and the trains of the underground with a spray, enjoying himself by sketching cryptic signs, graffiti and aphorisms signed with the name SAMO, acronym for “Same Old Shit”.
At first Basquiat raised a scandal, then he became a genius, finally consecrated artist, now his works sell like hot cakes in the contemporary market achieving mind-boggling amounts. In other words, his pace was short: from the rough walls of the Big Apple, to the most snobbish walls. From the streets to the galleries, although for a long time he continued expressing his animosity with graffiti and wall paintings. All his works were dominated by his own incomparable aesthetic vocabulary characterized by incredibly sublime combinations of cacophonous images marked by a continual and disharmonious succession of figures. Afterwards, Basquiat was associated to the group of Transavantgarde artists. His graffiti, violent and instinctive, go from the walls to the canvas and appear next to the great canvases realized by Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, David Salle and Julian Schnabel.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s quotations are subjected to continuous rises and have set extraordinary hammer prices especially in the last year. Indeed, the world record for the artist was established in May 2007 at Sotheby’s New York, when “Untitled”, work executed in 1981, sold for 14.6 million dollars.