October 14, 2021
With each
auction season, Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings
are brought to sale, and along with them come hefty sums of money. This fall is
set to be no different in that regard, with Christie’s set to sell Basquiat’s
1982 painting “The Guilt of Gold Teeth” at a marquee New York auction on
November 9. Bidding for the nearly-14-foot-wide work, made when Basquiat was
just 22 years old, will start at around $40 million, a Christie’s spokesperson
said, although an estimate is only available upon request.
Held for a nearly quarter century in a private collection,
this rare and monumental 1982 canvas was created at the peak of the iconic
artist’s career. This stands as an incredible example of a very limited group
of career-defining works that Basquiat painted during a trip to Modena, Italy
in March of 1982. The eight paintings created by Basquiat in Modena in 1982
remain some of his greatest artistic achievements, with two having established
record breaking results at auction. Five years ago in May of 2016, “Untitled” set a world auction record, selling for $57.3 million
at Christie’s New York and “Profit” sold for
$5.5 million at Christie's New York in 2002, establish a record for the
artist at the time, which remained unbroken until 2007.
Part of the reason “The Guilt of Gold
Teeth” was given such
a grand price tag is because it belongs to just a handful of works that the
artist produced while in Modena, Italy, as his star was rapidly ascending.
Having worked under the moniker SAMO previously, Basquiat had had the first
show as “Jean-Michel Basquiat” in 1982 at New York’s Anina Nosei Gallery; the
exhibition sold out on the night it opened to the public. A similarly popular
show at Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich followed.
The central figure in this example is identified as Baron
Samedi, a spirit of Haitian Vodou and leader of the Gede – who tends to
shepherding departed souls to the ‘other side.’ Versions of this figure appear
in several of Basquiat’s paintings, and The
Guilt of Gold Teeth is one of the earliest depictions. Baron
Samedi is linked closely with death, revelry, and safekeeping. He is frequently
depicted as a skeletal figure dressed in funeral attire, including his
signature top hat. He is both a protective caretaker as well as a riotous
trickster, representing multitudes—just as much about life as about death.
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