One of Basquiat's most important paintings sold at auction for $67 million

Sold for $67.1 million at a Christie’s auction held in New York on May 15 for one of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s most important masterpieces, El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile), which the artist made in 1983 when he was only 22 years old. Estimated at $45 million, the painting has been part of fashion designer Valentino Garavani’s private collection. In fact, part of the proceeds will go to the Valentino Academy.

On the canvas Basquiat choreographs a heady arrangement of evocative graphic symbols, scribbled words and pictorial drops, all characteristic elements of his pictorial language. It is an assemblage of symbolic signifiers. It recounts the passage of Africans from the building of civilization on the banks of the Nile to the Pharaonic commercial capital of Memphis, then, tracing the course of the waterway to the Mediterranean, moves through the Old World and on to the Americas and Memphis, Tennessee. Peopled with symbols such as the Eye of Horus (representing royal power, good health, and protection), Pharaoh’s guardian dog, and a seated black figure with the crossed-out words “slave” and “esclav” stamped on his chest, this epic panorama combines ancient and modern.

Another important theme is that of the boat, which appears in the central panel: it is overseen by a tall, imposing figure standing at the stern. The boat is reminiscent of the long boats depicted in the rock carvings of predynastic Egypt discovered in Wadi Barramiya, near the Red Sea, but also has echoes in the slave ship “Brookes.”

Also present are images that evoke slavery, such as a sickle-shaped tool found under the boat. Basquiat uses extraordinary symbolism to connect Africa to the Americas as this tool has been used for millennia by both the ancient Egyptians and enslaved people harvesting grain in the Deep South of the United States. The artist was an avid reader and owned several books on ancient Egyptian art, one of which was identified as source material for the elements of the present work, African Rock Art. The book included a diagram of the “sickle-shaped boat of the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, with banners,” on which Basquiat is said to have based these two important motifs.

El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) is an important painting: it reproduces the landscape of Basquiat’s lived experience with those who came before him. A “history painting” in the true sense of the word; it represents an encyclopedia of his technique, motifs, and sophisticated understanding of history.

One of Basquiat's most important paintings sold at auction for $67 million

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