2023-05-16 18:32:12
Christie’s continues its spring auctions in New York. In the session dedicated to the art of the 20th and 21st centuries that took place on Monday at the Rockefeller Center, 96% of the lots were sold -barely two dozen- and a total amount of $98.8 million. The most important sale of the night was ‘The Great Spectacle (The Nile)’, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s masterpiece, which was auctioned off at 67.1 million, after almost five minutes of competition between bids. He started with an estimate of about 45 million. More than a third of the lots for sale set artist records, five for women: Robin F. Williams, Simone Leigh, Danielle McKinney, Rebecca Ackroyd and Diane Arbus. One of the 27 lots was withdrawn. This is a painting by Jeff Koons from his ‘Gazing Ball’ series.
‘The Big Show (The Nile)’ (1983) by Basquiat, painted when the artist was just 22 years old, and one of three large canvases he executed that year, last sold at auction for $5.2 million in 2005. Its buyer was fashion designer Valentino Garavani. Bids for the Basquiat opened at 40 million and were rapidly rising from million to million. There were two collectors who were very interested in the work over the phone. They were joined by a bidder in the room. According to ‘Art Net’, the bidder in the room turned out to be the famous art dealer Larry Gagosianwho, despite being seated in the audience, did not bid personally.
Finally, Gagosian did not take the cat to water. The highest bid (67.1 million) was placed by a collector who intervened by phone. It is the fourth most expensive Basquiat painting at auction in history. The artist’s record is 110.5 million dollars, established in May 2017.
‘The Big Show (The Nile)’, also known as ‘Untitled (Negro Story)’, has been in the same private collection for the last fifteen years. Previously owned by esteemed gallery owner, collector and book publisher Enrico Navarre. The work has been exhibited in numerous critically acclaimed retrospectives of Basquiat’s work, including the first posthumous museum monograph (and the first American retrospective) organized by the Whitney Museum from New York in 1992, who later traveled to the Menil Collection of Houston, among other North American museums. This imposing triptych employs a series of signs and iconography that Basquiat used to address issues such as the African Diaspora.
‘The Big Show (The Nile)’, by Basquiat
Alex Rotter, Christie’s President of 20th and 21st Century Art, comments: “Basquiat’s genius is undeniable. His presence and his influence break boundaries, encompassing fashion, art and pop culture. The impact it continues to have on culture is inescapable and continues to expand. This seminal triptych perfectly illustrates how the young artist approached the historical constructions of race on a global stage.”
The second highest price of the night was $6.7 million for ‘Untitled (The Beautiful and Damned)’ (2013) by Cecily Brown, which is currently the subject of a successful retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The painting of a pumpkin signed by Yayoi Kusama was the third most sought-after work of the evening, with 4.9 million.
In addition, two records for iconic photographers were set, one for Diane Arbus, whose box of 10 well-known photographs, privately published in 1970, sold for just over a million. And the famous close-up of Eggleston of a tricycle, ‘Untitled (1970)’, was sold for the same price.
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