A stylised family portrait painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat will lead Christie’s 21st century evening sale this May, the auction house revealed on Friday. Baby Boom was painted in 1982, considered the most important year of Basquiat’s career. Work from 1982 often fetches higher prices: seven of his ten most valuable works at auction were executed during this year, Christie’s notes. The auction house estimates Baby Boom will sell for between $20m and $30m.
Baby Boom was first shown at Basquiat’s famous solo exhibition at Fun Gallery in November 1982. The title references the rise in birthrates that occurred at the end of the Second World War, and the work is believed to depict Basquiat with his parents, Gerard and Matilda. The canvas is stretched on a wooden frame with exposed bars and has been included in some of the most important Basquiat shows of the past two decades, including retrospectives at the Brooklyn Museum in 2005, the Fondation Beyeler in 2010 and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2018-19.
The painting was previously owned by the publishing magnate and prolific Basquiat collector Peter Brant, who paid $1m for it at a Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg auction in 2001, according to the Artnet Price Database. It was later up for sale at Levy Gorvy’s 2017 Art Basel stand, priced at $30m. In 2019, it was featured prominently in a blockbuster Basquiat exhibition at Brant’s foundation in Manhattan.
During the spring marquee auctions next month, Christie’s will also offer Claude Monet’s riverscape Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule (1891), estimated to sell for as much as $50m. Sotheby’s will sell 15 works worth more than $30m from New York art dealer Daniella Luxembourg’s personal collection.
