Art collector Ken Griffin can’t seem to stop acquiring Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings!
An exhibition of Griffin’s Basquiats that will open at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in June is accompanied by press materials that include In Italian (1983), which is notable because the work was previously owned by collector Peter Brant. (His Brant Foundation surveyed the artist’s work in 2019 at its location in Manhattan’s East Village, some may recall.)
A representative for Brant did not respond to request for comment. A rep for Griffin confirmed that the painting will be in the show.
The painting is visible in photos of a New York residence owned by Brant and his wife Stephanie Seymour that have been posted on social media, including one by fellow top collector Yusaka Maezawa, who’s also a Basquiat aficionado.
Basquiat painted In Italian in 1983 on Crosby Street. Before entering Brant’s collection, it was owned by Pop art king Andy Warhol, who got it from Basquiat in a trade.
Stephen Torton, a Paris-based artist who was an assistant to Basquiat, tipped me off to the change in ownership. (Torton, as it happens, is likely one of the figures depicted in the painting: very cool.)
The Pérez show, “Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols,” is described as “a rare gathering of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s most iconic works … together in Miami for the first time, generously loaned from the Kenneth C. Griffin Collection.” Set to open June 25, it features nearly a dozen paintings, and is being curated by the museum’s director, Franklin Sirmans, who’s a Basquiat expert, and the Griffin Collection’s curator, Megan Kincaid.
Kenneth Griffin speaks onstage during the Pérez Art Museum Miami’s Art of the Party on November 09, 2024 in Miami, Florida. Photo: John Parra/Getty Images for Pérez Art Museum Miami.
“The painting reflects both Basquiat’s engagement with the Italian Renaissance tradition of anatomical investigation and his experience of being received, celebrated, and scrutinized by European art institutions and even history,” Sirmans writes in a catalogue essay for the show. He adds: “The large head right of center may be a portrait of Stephen Torton, Basquiat’s friend and studio assistant at the time.”
“It is a dazzling very important part of his legacy and especially to my regard,” Torton told me via text. “A major epic revelation that is going to be recounted and studied.” He said that he “sat for the portrait then worked on it continually” with Basquiat “for months.”
In a statement, Griffin said, “I am proud to partner with PAMM to present some of the greatest works by one of America’s most iconic artists, Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose art has a unique power to connect across communities and generations.”
It’s not clear when Griffin acquired the painting, who sold it to him, or what he paid. Basquiats from 1982 are generally considered most desirable, but pieces from other years have netted big numbers. The artist’s second-highest price at auction, $93 million, came in 2021 at Christie’s in New York for a 1983 painting, In This Case, which has one of the artist’s iconic skulls against a red background.
Detail of Basquiat’s Untitled (1982). Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Also featured in the Miami exhibition will be Untitled (Skull), 1982, which Griffin acquired from Maezawa for a price as high as $200 million, according to Artnet columnist Kenny Schachter. That is almost twice the $110.5 million that Maezawa shelled out for it at Sotheby’s in New York in 2017. It remains the auction record for a Basquiat on the block, according to the Artnet Price Database.
Back in 2020, journalist Josh Baer reported that Griffin acquired a Basquiat work from Brant for $100 million, but he did not publish a title.
Seven Basquiat paintings have sold at auction for more than $50 million each, according to Artnet data. A total of 82 paintings have sold at auction for above $10 million each.
Do you love the painting but don’t think you have the liquidity to make a deal with Griffin? The Brant Foundation has a T-shirt printed with In Italian available for a cool $120.