美国国家公共电台 NPR Jean-Michel Basquiat Painting Sells For Record $110.5 Million

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

A painting of a skull¹ by Jean-Michel Basquiat broke records at Sotheby's last night. The work sold for more than $110 million. As NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports, that is the most ever for an American artist's work at auction².

ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE³: With thick black lines, an open mouth, an explosion of blue, red and yellow, the skull seems to be shouting. Jean-Michel Basquiat was just 21 years old when he painted it. It wowed art lovers when Sotheby's first unveiled it two weeks ago. The auction house's pre-sale estimate was $60 million.

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UNIDENTIFIED AUCTIONEER: Seventy-nine million dollars.

BLAIR: It was shattered within minutes.

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UNIDENTIFIED AUCTIONEER: For $98 million.

BLAIR: With fees, the price tag rose to $110.5 million. The winning bidder⁴ was Japanese Internet mogul Yusaku Maezawa. This Basquiat painting hadn't been seen in public for decades. It was sold at auction in 1984 for just $19,000.

GREGOIRE BILLAULT: Which at that time was obviously a record for such a young artist. Don't forget that Jean-Michel at the time is 24 years old.

BLAIR: Sotheby's head of contemporary art, Gregoire Billault, says the work has been in a private collection ever since. Sotheby's was thrilled when it came to them.

BILLAULT: Because nobody knew who bought the painting at the time, there was no loan request either from museums or galleries. So for us to be able to offer this painting was like a discovery. That was a complete rediscovery for the market.

BLAIR: Billault says only two other contemporary artists have exceeded $100 million at auction - Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol, and now Jean-Michel Basquiat.

PAIGE POWELL: It didn't surprise me at all, and it's going to keep escalating⁵.

BLAIR: Photographer Paige Powell was Basquiat's girlfriend in New York in the 1980s.

POWELL: His work is so provocative⁶. It just - it gets to everybody on all different levels - politically, poetically⁷.

BLAIR: Basquiat was born in Brooklyn. He never finished high school. Instead, he was consumed with art - Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, who became a friend and collaborator⁸. Paige Powell says Basquiat would be thrilled at last night's sale.

POWELL: He was absolutely obsessed⁹ with being famous.

BLAIR: And for a time, he was. But in 1988, Basquiat died of a heroin¹⁰ overdose. He was 27 years old. Much has been written about the angst and chaos¹¹ in Basquiat's paintings. He mixed graffiti with abstract symbols and body parts and scrawled¹² words like fool and whitewashing¹³ on his work.

Basquiat was a voracious¹⁴ observer. In an interview for the 1986 British documentary series "State Of Art" (ph), he noted¹⁵ that modern art leaves a lot of people out.

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JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: Black people are never really portrayed¹⁶ realistically in - not - or - not even - I mean, not even portrayed in modern art enough.

BLAIR: For Gregoire Billault, it's important that the highest-selling American artist at auction is African-American.

BILLAULT: It's always difficult when you are a minority. And I think you grow as a group, as a country, as a minority when your biggest symbols are appreciated and enjoyed by the rest of the planet.

BLAIR: Collector Yusaku Maezawa also seems to understand the importance of the work he just bought. He's planning to build a museum for his collection in his hometown in Japan. Until then, he says he'll loan the Basquiat to institutions around the world.

In an Instagram post, he said he was struck with so much excitement over the work and wants to share that experience with as many people as possible. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.

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1 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

2 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 bidder   

n.(拍卖时的)出价人，报价人，投标人

参考例句：

• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder.电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。
• The bidder withdrew his bid after submission of his bid.投标者在投标之后撤销了投标书。

5 escalating   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的现在分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The cost of living is escalating. 生活费用在迅速上涨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cost of living is escalating in the country. 这个国家的生活费用在上涨。 来自辞典例句

6 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

7 poetically   

adv.有诗意地，用韵文

参考例句：

• Life is poetically compared to the morning dew. 在诗歌中，人生被比喻为朝露。 来自辞典例句
• Poetically, Midsummer's Eve begins in flowers and ends in fire. 仲夏节是富有诗意的节日，它以鲜花领航，在篝火旁完美落幕。 来自互联网

8 collaborator   

n.合作者，协作者

参考例句：

• I need a collaborator to help me. 我需要个人跟我合作，帮我的忙。
• His collaborator, Hooke, was of a different opinion. 他的合作者霍克持有不同的看法。

9 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

10 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

11 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

12 scrawled   

乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I tried to read his directions, scrawled on a piece of paper. 我尽量弄明白他草草写在一片纸上的指示。
• Tom scrawled on his slate, "Please take it -- I got more." 汤姆在他的写字板上写了几个字：“请你收下吧，我多得是哩。”

13 whitewashing   

粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的现在分词 )； 喷浆

参考例句：

• Tom went on whitewashing the fence, paying no attention to Ben. 汤姆没有理睬本，继续在粉刷着篱笆。
• When whitewashing the wall, he painted with a roller in his hand. 刷墙的时候，他手里拿个辊子，挥舞着胳膊。

14 voracious   

adj.狼吞虎咽的，贪婪的

参考例句：

• She's a voracious reader of all kinds of love stories.什么样的爱情故事她都百看不厌。
• Joseph Smith was a voracious book collector.约瑟夫·史密斯是个如饥似渴的藏书家。

15 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

16 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》