Wolf Sausage
Wolf Sausage
Unsigned Print
Jean-Michel Basquiat
£14,500-£21,000Value Indicator
$30,000-$45,000 Value Indicator
$27,000-$40,000 Value Indicator
¥140,000-¥200,000 Value Indicator
€17,000-€25,000 Value Indicator
$150,000-$220,000 Value Indicator
¥2,840,000-¥4,110,000 Value Indicator
$19,000-$28,000 Value Indicator
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56 x 76cm, Edition of 50, 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
Wolf Sausage is a 1982 screen print in colours from Jean-Michel Basquiat's Daros Suite series. The print is divided into a haphazard grid, much of which is covered by a layer of paint which obscures the sketches and text that lie beneath. The depiction of a token with the words ‘comics code’ brings the piece into parallel with a cartoon. The mantra-like saying which is written at the top of the image “in god we trust / in god we trust” and robotically repeated across the piece, clashes against the text reading ‘Liberty’ which surrounds it.
The image of a dog with a top hat, which appears to loom menacingly over much of the piece, recalls the humanisation of animals in a number of Basquiat works through adornment. In Trophy, a penguin dons a top hat. In Pez Dispenser, a dinosaur wears a majestic gold crown. This anthropomorphism is undercut by the title and images of meat in Wolf Sausage, thereby juxtaposing the aggrandising of animals with their use as food products. This kind of potent acknowledgement of society’s hypocrisy is emblematic of Hunter Drohojowska’s assertion that “Basquiat’s works are direct and furious reflections of a decadent, sadistic society”.
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.
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