Kim K's Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Both Poles, 1982

You may know the Kardashians… but you may not know that they are avid Blue Chip art collectors! 

Recently, Kim revealed Basquiat’s ‘Both Poles’ from 1982 in her home. The work is from the highly acclaimed stretcher bar series, which Basquiat made from 1982-1985. 1982 is widely considered to be Basquiat’s most desirable year as he refined his spectacular style, experimented more, gained the patronage of dealer Annina Nosei, transitioned to larger canvases, and dated pop sensation Madonna. 

The work was originally sold by Larry Gagosian’s debut exhibition of Basquiat in 1982 and last auctioned for approximately $5m in 2017. It features warm hues of baby pink and a Basquiat version of the North and South Pole, along with contrasting imagery of a pickaxe and a satellite tower. This could symbolize his creative process of mining important themes and motifs from bygone centuries and eons, while incorporating messaging from his present-day life, too.

Stretcher Bar paintings are highly desirable, perform very well in the secondary market, and vary considerably in quality and scale. A strong example from 1982 generating $32m at auction in May of this year. A blockbuster show at the Brant Foundation in 2019 exhibited several of them together in a grid.

Given the robust recent demand for Basquiat’s work and major traveling retrospective shows, and only approximately 600 paintings produced during his lifetime, Kim has collected an exquisite piece of art history. 

Jay-Z and Beyonce own another work from this series entitled ‘Empire’.