Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
Unsigned Print
Jean-Michel Basquiat
£18,000-£26,000Value Indicator
$35,000-$50,000 Value Indicator
$35,000-$50,000 Value Indicator
¥170,000-¥250,000 Value Indicator
€21,000-€30,000 Value Indicator
$190,000-$270,000 Value Indicator
¥3,520,000-¥5,090,000 Value Indicator
$24,000-$35,000 Value Indicator
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74 x 100cm, Edition of 60, Screenprint
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
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Meaning & Analysis
Boxer Rebellion is a screen print in colours by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1982. Basquiat revered Black icons of the boxing ring such as Sugar Ray Robinson, who this piece name-checks. Two boxers are loosely depicted at the centre of the image. Instead of depicting their anatomy, the style is cartoon-like, with the boxers appearing to be composed of robotic parts, giving them a heroic, futuristic veneer. Vibrant patches of red, yellow and blue emanate from the site of the punch inflicted by the figure on the left.
Not only is the doodle-like rendering of the boxers typical of Basquiat's self-consciously childlike drawing style, but it also suggests the influence of popular visual media of the era, reinforced by the text reading ‘TECHNICOLOR’. To this point, there is no doubt that the inspiration behind his depiction of human bodies far transcended the realm of the scholarly medical text Gray’s Anatomy. Leonhard Emmerling notes: “to his predilection for anatomic charts and love of children’s drawing style, Basquiat adds an occasional reliance on comic-book sources like Mad, Batman, Superman and Popeye. In no way does his painting try to disguise the many inspirations drawn unadulterated from television and the popular visual media.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat's unique visual style has dominated the Urban Art scene, securing his status as one of the most successful African-American street artists of the 20th Century. Addressing themes of race, identity and culture within his expressive works, his distinctive painterly style and use of child-like iconography changed the course of art history forever. Artworks such as Undiscovered Genius place controversial subjects at the forefront of his narrative. Despite his tragically premature death at the age of 27, Basquiat's impact on the art scene is exemplified through the increase of his market value in the years since.
