Capitalizing on the narrative power of imagery, Taxi 45th/Broadway deftly engages with art history, politics and race. A black man, made invisible in the black darkness of night, endures the label “Negro” as he unsuccessfully attempts to hail a cab, while a white taxi driver ignores his plea and instead curses profanities at him. Despite Basquiat’s meteoric ascension from downtown graffiti street artist to famous icon of the 1980s New York art scene – of which Warhol was critical in eliciting – his race still prevailed as his primary identifier outside the realm of the art world. The present composition therefore reflects on a deeply personal and frustrating recurrence in Basquiat’s everyday life.

Taxi, 45th/Broadway was previously in the collection of Gianni Versace, and auctioned by Sotheby’s in London in 2005. The work has remained in the same collection since.

Jean-Michel Basquiat Untitled 1982 Oil stick on paper 51.1 by 41 cm | 20⅛ by 16⅛ in Estimate $1.5/2 Million

Untitled (1982) is a masterful example of the artist’s instinctive and lauded abilities as a draughtsman. Typical of his works on paper, the mark-making is urgent, the color varied, and the signature motif of the head central to the composition – an enduring icon that recurs throughout his body of work. Within Basquiat’s unique idiom, the warrior figure depicted here references the young artist’s ambition as he begins his rise to critical and commercial acclaim in 1982.

Jean-Michel Basquiat Untitled 1988 Oil stick and acrylic on plywood 106.7 by 91.4 cm | 42⅛ by 36 in Estimate $2/4 Million

In this work from the final year of Basquiat’s young life – of which fewer than 30 examples are known today – we see the artist confronting and anticipating his own mortality. In several key paintings from this year, Basquiat wrestled with the reality of his own humanity by returning to the exploration of human anatomy that fascinated him since boyhood. Basquiat reduces anatomy to its most elemental forms, a kind of self-portrait that reflects his meditation on his own brilliance and cultural status as a prodigy haunted by his own demons.