Seattle Art Museum To Feature Famed Work Of ​Jean-Michel Basquiat

SEATTLE, WA – The Seattle Art Museum announced Monday it will feature the famed painting, Basquiat—Untitled, of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The art piece will arrive for its first West Coast exhibition on March 21.

The painting, which has never been publicly exhibited since its unveiling in 1982, will be featured through Aug. 13, the museum said.

Untitled comes to Seattle courtesy of collector Yusaku Maezawa, who recently acquired the work for $110.5 million, the highest amount ever paid for a piece of work by an American artist.

“We are pleased to bring this extraordinary painting to Seattle,” Kimerly Rorschach, SAM’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom director and CEO, said. “It’s truly a unique opportunity to see work by Basquiat here in the Pacific Northwest. We are grateful to Mr. Maezawa for his passion for art, his great generosity, and his
desire to share this important painting with our visitors.”

Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died in 1988, created Untitled at a critical juncture in his meteoric career. Created in 1982, Untitled marks a decisive turn towards figurative painting by Basquiat, moving from works on the walls of the city to works on canvas, the museum said.

Following the tour of the painting, whose subsequent destinations are to be announced, Untitled will reside in a new museum that Mr. Maezawa is building in his hometown of Chiba, Japan.

--Photo courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum