Posted by | RayCornelius
It has been said that a painter is worth more dead than he is alive. Well that statement could not have been truer than the other night.
According to theGrio.com, a private bidder purchased a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting for $16,322,500 during an art auction last week at New York’s Phillips de Pury. The painting “Untitled “from 1981 actually surpassed the previous record set by Basquiat of $14.6 million set in 2007.
Simon de Pury, the chairman of the auction house said, “We are very happy. I thought it was a very solid sale. We are pleased.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American born artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent who exploded onto the art scene in the early 1980’s. This one time boyfriend of Madonna was considered a neo-expressionist painter and was heavily influence by pop artist Andy Warhol. Basquiat died in 1988 at age 27 of a heroin overdose at his art studio in New York City.
Take a look at more of his amazing work here.