newsfromphillipsdepury201102

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)
Overrun, executed in 1985
Signed, titled and dated Basquiat Overrun 1985 (on the reverse).
Oil, acrylic and metallic paint with colour photocopy collage laid on wooden panel (203x81cm).
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £1,127,650 (Phillips de Pury's London, February 17th 2011, Lot 11)
Estimate £1,000,000-£1,500,000

«Executed in 1985 at the height of Basquiat's powers, Overrun is a frantic, powerful canvas which features some of the most important themes found throughout the artist's work. For example, the most striking and immediately recognizable motif in the painting is the beautifully rendered, raw, expressionist figure found in the lower half of the composition. Part-human, part-animal, Basquiat's anthropomorphic creature displays an aggression and anger with its stern eyes and gaping mouth. These tormented heads have often been interpreted as self-portraits, a reflection, it has been suggested, of the artist's struggle as an African American in a predominantly white art world. The haunting, ghost-like figure with its hollow eyes, recalls African tribal masks and voodoo ritual figurines used throughout the African-American community in the Southern United States and in the former slave colonies of the Caribbean. Being of Haitian origin, Basquiat throughout his career incorporated Black history into his works, but from this mid-point in his career, an obsession with mortality also permeates his art, to the point where his final work is apocalyptically titled Riding with Death [...]

Provenance:
_ Mary Boone Gallery, New York.
_ Galerie Beaubourg, Paris.