Basquiat, a masterpiece inspired by Leonardo da Vinci up for auction: estimate of 30 million dollars

At the center of the work is the comparison with Leonardo da Vinci and, in particular, with the drawing “A man deceived by the gypsies”, previously known as “Five grotesque heads”, preserved in the British Royal Collection. Made around 1493, the study depicts five male heads characterized by deformed expressions and exasperated features. The sheet represents one of Leonardo’s most articulated explorations of the grotesque, understood as an intentional alteration of forms and opposition to classical ideals of beauty.

The New York writer Jean-Michel Basquiat takes up the five subjects and reinterprets them through the visual language of New York in the 1980s. On a canvas dominated by bright orange, with turquoise and intense blue backgrounds, the artist constructs a composition with an almost grid-like structure, in which anatomical images, faces and textual annotations intertwine. Among the writings present in the painting appear expressions such as “teeth” (teeth), “mostly nostrils” (mostly nostrils) and “a group of elders”. In the lower right corner, within a pale pink area, the wording “alter ego” also appears, a reference to the artist’s personal dimension. The work is thus configured not only as a tribute to one of the masters of the Renaissance, but also as a reflection on the criteria with which society defines what is beautiful, deformed or monstrous. Basquiat questions seemingly universal aesthetic categories, while at the same time questioning the relationships between representation, identity and power. The rereading takes on a particular meaning in light of the experience of the artist, a young African-American author active in an art system largely dominated by white figures. In the context of the social tensions and racial injustices of the 1980s, the comparison with the history of art becomes a tool for investigating the mechanisms of exclusion and placing one’s own cultural experience within a consolidated tradition. “Few works show Basquiat confronting the weight of art history so directly,” said Ana Maria Celis, head of Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art department. According to Celis, the painting demonstrates the artist’s ability to renew the theme of the grotesque, transferring it into the context of the contradictions and excesses of New York in the 1980s. (by Paolo Martini)