Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — More than four decades after Haitian-Puerto Rican artist Jean-Michel Pasquia canceled a controversial exhibition in Italy of eight newly made paintings, the gallery is showing these works together for the first time.
The exhibition “Bascia: Paintings of Modena”, which will open next month at the Bieler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, includes the painting “The Guilt of Gold Teeth”, which sold for $ 40 million at an auction organized by Christie’s in 2021.
In 1982, Emilio Mazzoli, an Italian gallery owner, invited Baschia to produce artworks for a single exhibition, and provided him with a workspace and painting supplies.
The graffiti artist painted his paintings on discarded old canvases previously used by another artist, Mario Schifano, and wrote “Modena” on the back of the paintings. But complications over paying for the artworks led to the cancellation of the planned exhibition in Europe, just as Basquiat was achieving international fame.
Large-scale artworks are held in eight separate private collections in the United States, Asia and Switzerland.
In an interview Basquiat gave to the New York Times in 1985, he described how much he hated the experience.
He said, “They allocated a warehouse for me to paint eight paintings in a week.”
He added that the warehouse “was like a sick factory, I hated it.”
--The artworks were offered to new buyers through Basquia’s agent in New York at the time, Annina Nussi.
The “Paintings of Modena” share several stylistic codes and traits, according to a statement from the Bayler Foundation, including “a massive figure, often in black, set against a background of broad, expressive brushstrokes…the human body and animal occupy the central scene.”
Sam Keeler, director of the Pyler Foundation, told The Art News Paper, “With each new generation, the importance of Basquiat’s work increases. His compilation of images and words reflecting and denoting high and popular culture, history, science, and social and economic injustice, is truly remarkable.” Ahead of his time, and more relevant today than ever before.
Modena’s paintings were painted over 40 years ago and have never been exhibited together before, and it’s interesting to bring them together again.
The average insured value of each of these businesses is $100 million, and the combined value of the 8 businesses totals $800 million, according to the Beiller Foundation.
Basquiat’s work continues to be in high demand in the art market, as the famous American artist’s works dominate the sales season in New York this month.
The “Moon View” painting, painted in 1984, from the collection of the late musician Mo Austin, will be auctioned by Sozby’s House of Auctions on May 16, with a high estimate of $10 million.
In the same week, the “Christie’s” auction house presents the “El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile)” painting, which was painted in 1983, from the collection of Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani, on May 15, with an estimated value of $ 45 million.
