Jean-Michel Basquiat (American, 1960 - 1988) Attributed, King Joe Lewis Postcard. Pencil, Crayon and oil stick on carton board. Initialed verso, undated and unframed.

Prior to achieving fame as an artist, Basquiat made postcards and sold them on the streets of Manhattan. This postcard comes from a collection which achieved notoriety as the original Kevin Doyle Subway Portfolio. The former owner, Kevin Doyle, reported that Basquiat left a portfolio of postcard drawings behind on a subway ride. This lot is accompanied by a document from Mr. Doyle.

Jean-Michel Basquiat was active/lived in New York. He is known for street-graffiti, naive figure painting, drawing. He first achieved fame as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip hop, punk, and street art movements had coalesced. He is considered a major contributor to the neo-expressionist movement, a late-modernist style of art characterized by intense subjectivity and rough handling of materials. Basquiat used his paintings as a means of social commentary/criticism, often making attacks on power structures and systems of racism and focusing on dichotomies like wealth vs. poverty, integration vs. segregation and inner vs. outer experience.

5.5 x 4.4 inches

Private collection, North Carolina, USA.

Good condition with evidence of wear and handling.