With the contemporary art auctions coming up, there are several Basquiat’s that will be temporarily on view to the public, for a limited time.

Principally, Basquiat’s work Negro Period, a great, large painted construction, will be on view at Christie’s, London for five days in October. For fans in the neighborhood this should not be missed.

This mural-size painting and collage on wood with added bottle caps is one of the several large, great multi-media works around 1986. Like many of them, this is in some ways reminiscent of Rauschenberg’s Combines, but still displaying Basquiat’s obvious imagery, line and energy. Two of the three panels are filled with a manic and textural mix of images Xeroxed from his own sketchbooks, which make a textural surface framed by the red painted wood. The collaged images include black heads, anatomical drawings, various symbols and words (such as jazz legend "Lester Young") and gesture painting. The almost random collection of images hint at multiple meanings, like an enormous scrapbook mixing his own history with those of other black men, famous and unknown, through history. The third panel, on the right, is made from an old door, on which is painted a larger, lone image.

The title of this painting is one of many referring to black people in history (Irony of the Negro Policemen, Famous Negro Athletes, etc.) but is also a lifting of a phrase from what was called Picasso’s “Negro Period” (époque négre, more often called his African period these days), between Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and analytical cubism, when Picasso was decisively influenced by his encounter with African sculpture.

The same year this painting was done, 1986, Basquiat took trip to Ivory Coast, where he displayed his work, and traveled in the interior of the country.  

The work was sold at the end of his brief association with the Mary Boone Gallery, it went from there straight to Bruno Bischofberger’s in Zurich, and has stayed in Europe since. Negro Period was sold at Christie’s London in 2006 for £1,016,000 (It was estimated at  £1,000,000 - £1,500,000). Now it is back in the same place and estimated at £1,200,000 - £1,800,000. With many of the other big combines of 1986-7 now attracting attention at the large Basquiat retrospective, this rare example of one at auction will almost certainly surpass the low estimate.

Viewing times are October 10th - 14th (see times), at Christie's, 8 King Street, St. James's, London.

Also on view now are several untitled works on paper, at Sotheby’s, New York. They will be there until Sunday, September 26^th. They include a very early 1979 collage (ink stamp, colored pencil and xerox collage on paper), in a similar technique to the postcards he was making and selling at the time. This was in the collection of Jennifer Stein, who collaborated with Basquiat and helped him sell his postcards on the street. She she sold it at Sotheby’s NY in 1998. It is now back at auction and on view.

Also with the drawings is a painted denim jacket Basquiat produced for an AIDS benefit auction, Decorated Denim, at Barney's New York in 1986. He ironically filled in the center panel at the back with white paint, over which he painted a cartoon-like monkey’s head, below the label MONKEY. This is the first time it has been seen on exhibition since the benefit.

For more details of all the works on display now and coming up, see the auction page of this site.