Untitled (devil)

Eight paintings in a week

In May 1981 the Italian dealer Emilio Mazzoli gave Jean-Michel Basquiat his first solo show, at his gallery in Modena. The painter Sandro Chia had recommended the young New Yorker, and Mazzoli bought ten paintings for $10,000. In 1982 Mazzoli brought Basquiat back to make work for a second, one-off show, supplying a workspace and painting materials.

The workspace was a warehouse in Modena's industrial area, and the schedule was brutal: the paintings were to be made in about a week. Basquiat painted over discarded canvases that had been used by the Italian painter Mario Schifano, and he wrote 'Modena' on the backs. The result was eight monumental canvases, each roughly 2.5 by 4 meters. This one, among the largest works of his career, is more than 16 feet wide and almost 8 feet tall.

Sources differ on the timing. One account says the second Modena show was scheduled for March 1982; another places the making of the eight paintings in May 1982. All agree the show never happened. Disagreements between Mazzoli and Basquiat's New York dealer, Annina Nosei, over payment, proceeds and credit led to its cancellation.

A 21-year-old at full speed

Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to a father from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Gerard Basquiat, and a Brooklyn-born mother of Puerto Rican parents, Matilde. In May 1978 he and a schoolmate, Al Diaz, began spray-painting satirical slogans around Lower Manhattan under the name SAMO. His first public showing came in the 1981 exhibition New York/New Wave at P.S.1.

In September 1981 Nosei invited him to join her gallery and gave him room to paint in its basement. His first American solo show opened there in March 1982. That June, at 21, he became the youngest artist ever to take part in Documenta, showing alongside Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol. By one count he had six solo shows around the world that year.

He did not enjoy Modena. In a 1985 interview with The New York Times he said, 'They set it up for me so I'd have to make eight paintings in a week,' and said the warehouse felt 'like a factory, a sick factory.' 'I hated it,' he added. Basquiat died on August 12, 1988, at his Great Jones Street home in Manhattan, at age 27.

What the painting shows

At the center is a black, horned devil. Red paint drips from the horns. The body is little more than black strokes marking out ribs, and the figure's arms, or wings, spread across the canvas. It grins at the viewer with piercing eyes, an oversized triangular nose and a grid of teeth, features that writers have tied to African masks and modernist painting.

Around it, sporadic brushwork and vivid, overlapping color fill the field, with a bright orange ground. The work has often been identified as a self-portrait of Basquiat as a devil, and devil-like figures recur in his work of the period.

The eight Modena paintings share a family resemblance. A museum statement on the group describes 'a monumental, often black figure set against a background of broad, gestural and expressive brushstrokes,' with the human and animal body at the center. The group includes The Guilt of Gold Teeth, Untitled (Angel), Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, Profit I and Untitled (Cowparts). All eight are signed 'Basquiat Modena,' though only a few on the front.

From a canceled show to a record

After the Modena show fell apart, the paintings found buyers through Nosei in New York. This canvas's recorded chain of ownership runs from New York to a gallery in Nagoya, Japan, in 1985, then through dealers in New York and Hong Kong to a private New York collection. Between 1985 and 2011 it was exhibited in Tokyo, Paris, Taiwan, Brazil, Venice, Naples, Rome, Switzerland and elsewhere.

On June 23, 2004, it sold at auction in London for 2.5 million pounds, reported as $4.5 million, to the New York collector and dealer Adam Lindemann, who owned it with Amalia Dayan. Lindemann sold it again on May 10, 2016, at auction in New York, for $57,285,000. The buyer was the Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, and the price was then the highest ever paid at auction for a Basquiat, passing the $48.8 million paid for Dustheads in May 2013.

The record lasted a year. In May 2017 Maezawa paid $110.5 million at auction for another untitled 1982 Basquiat, a skull on a blue ground. In February 2022 he announced he would sell the devil, saying the six years of owning it were 'nothing but a great pleasure' and that art 'should be shared so that it can be a part of everyone's lives.' The painting toured London, Los Angeles and Taipei before the sale, with an estimate of about $70 million and a third-party guarantee. Payment in Ether, Bitcoin or ordinary currency was accepted.

At auction in New York on May 18, 2022, bidding opened at $62 million. After about five bids the hammer fell at $75 million, or $85 million with fees, to a client of a specialist based in Taipei. The buyer was reported as an Asian collector. One wire report dated the sale May 19; the sale report and the pre-sale announcements give May 18.

Where it stands

The 2022 result made the devil Basquiat's third-highest auction sale and his fourth most expensive painting. It came at a high-water mark for the artist's market: his work brought $439.6 million at auction in 2021, the most ever for Basquiat in one year.

In June 2023 the Fondation Beyeler near Basel opened Basquiat: The Modena Paintings, the first time all eight canvases had been shown together, more than 40 years after the show they were made for was canceled. The exhibition ran through August 27, 2023. The eight works belong to separate private collections in the United States, Asia and Switzerland.

The museum's director, Sam Keller, called the group 'energy bombs.' 'With every next generation, the importance of Basquiat's work is increasing further,' he said.

The numbers

Medium

Acrylic and spray paint on canvas (some references: acrylic on canvas)

Dimensions

239.4 x 501 cm (about 94 x 197 in)

Catalogue raisonne

Cover image of the 1996 catalogue raisonne; entry number not stated in sources

Owner

Private collection; 2022 buyer reported as an Asian collector

Timeline

1. Dec 22, 1960

   Jean-Michel Basquiat is born in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

2. May 1978

   Basquiat and Al Diaz begin painting SAMO graffiti in Lower Manhattan.

3. 1981

   Basquiat's first public showing, in New York/New Wave at P.S.1.

4. May 1981

   First solo show, at Emilio Mazzoli's gallery in Modena.

5. Sep 1981

   Annina Nosei invites Basquiat to join her gallery.

6. Mar 1982

   First American solo show opens at Nosei's gallery in New York.

7. 1982

   Basquiat paints eight large canvases in Modena, including this one; the planned show is canceled. Sources differ on March or May.

8. Jun 1982

   At 21, Basquiat becomes the youngest artist ever shown at Documenta.

9. 1985

   The painting goes to a gallery in Nagoya, Japan; it is exhibited internationally from 1985 to 2011.

10. Feb 10, 1985

    Basquiat tells The New York Times the Modena setup felt like 'a sick factory.'

11. Aug 12, 1988

    Basquiat dies in Manhattan at 27.

12. 1996

    The painting appears on the cover of Basquiat's catalogue raisonne.

13. Jun 23, 2004

    Sold at auction in London for 2.5 million pounds (reported as $4.5 million) to Adam Lindemann.

14. May 10, 2016

    Sold at auction in New York for $57,285,000 to Yusaku Maezawa, a Basquiat auction record.

15. May 2017

    Maezawa buys a 1982 skull painting for $110.5 million, ending the devil's run as the record.

16. Feb 28, 2022

    Maezawa announces the sale; the painting tours London, Los Angeles and Taipei.

17. May 18, 2022

    Sold at auction in New York for $85 million with fees, reportedly to an Asian collector.

18. Jun 2023

    All eight Modena paintings are shown together for the first time, at the Fondation Beyeler, through August 27, 2023.

The world in 1982

• Apr 1982

  Argentine forces invade the Falkland Islands, beginning the Falklands War.

• Jun 6, 1982

  Israeli forces invade Lebanon.

• Jun 11, 1982

  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial opens in the United States.

• Jun 14, 1982

  Argentine forces surrender, ending the Falklands War.

• Jul 11, 1982

  Italy beats West Germany 3-1 to win the World Cup in Spain.

• Nov 29, 1982

  Michael Jackson releases Thriller.

• Dec 2, 1982

  Barney Clark receives the first permanent artificial heart.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Untitled (devil) is number 8 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (8 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Basquiat painted the Modena pictures over discarded canvases that had been used by another artist, Mario Schifano.
• When it sold in 2016 for $57.3 million, it was the most expensive Basquiat ever sold at auction; its buyer broke that record himself a year later.
• Its 2022 sale accepted payment in Ether or Bitcoin as well as ordinary currency.
• The dealer who gave Basquiat his first solo show in 1981 bought ten of his paintings for $10,000 in total.
• The eight Modena paintings, made for one show, were not shown together until 2023, 41 years later.
• Basquiat said of the Modena commission: 'They set it up for me so I'd have to make eight paintings in a week.'