1686) Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Artist, France: La Poste, France (French Post) has issued a Postage Stamp of 2.56 Euros depicting his popular untitled painting "Skull": Date of Stamp issue: 08.02.2021:
About Jean Michel Basquiat:
Jean-Michel Basquiat (French: [ʒɑ̃ miʃɛl baskja]; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of SAMO, a graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s, where rap, punk, and street art coalesced into early hip-hop music culture. By the early 1980s, his neo-expressionist paintings were being exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. At 21, Basquiat became the youngest artist to ever take part in documenta in Kassel. At 22, he was the youngest to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial in New York. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his art in 1992.
Basquiat's art focused on dichotomies such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. Basquiat used social commentary in his paintings as a tool for introspection and for identifying with his experiences in the black community of his time, as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism. Basquiat's visual poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle.
Since his death at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose in 1988, his work has steadily increased in value.
Heads and skulls are seen as significant focal points of many of Basquiat's most seminal works:
Heads in works like Untitled (Two Heads on Gold) (1982) and Philistines (1982) are reminiscent of African masks, which suggests a cultural reclamation. The skulls allude to Haitian Voodoo (Vodou), which is filled with skull symbolism. The paintings Red Skull (1982) and Untitled (1982) can be seen as primary examples. In reference to the potent image depicted in Untitled (Skull) (1981), Fred Hoffman writes that Basquiat was likely, "caught off guard, possibly even frightened, by the power and energy emanating from this unexpected image."
Further investigation by Hoffman in his book The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat reveals a deeper interest in the artist's fascination with heads that proves an evolution in the artist's oeuvre from one of raw power to one of more refined cognizance.
At a Sotheby's auction in May 2017, "Untitled", a 1982 painting by Basquiat depicting a black skull with red and yellow rivulets, sold for $110.5 million, becoming one of the most expensive paintings ever purchased. It also set a new record high for an American artist at auction.
The Postage Stamp by La Poste, France:
The issue of this postage stamp of €2,56 by La Poste, France is dedicated to Jean-Michel Basquiat and depicts his painting "Untitled" (Skull):
Technical details:
Issue Date: 08.02.2021
Designer: Mathilde Laurent
Illustrator: Mathilde Laurent
Process: Heliogravure
Values: €2,56
20) The Micro-Currency called - "EUSCKO" , France circulates in the French Basque Country and is the largest such currency in circulation today in the world, fully backed by the Euro; ii) It is one of 44 such micro-currencies circulating in French cities; iii) Paris is on the vetge of introducing a micro-currency.
21) Guerlain, France: A set of two stamps in the denominations of 0.97 and 1.94 Euros issued by La Poste, France: Date of Stamp Set issue: 13.01.2020
23) "Treasures of Notre Dame Cathedral" - Reconstruction over a period of five years (2019-2024): La Poste (French Post) is issuing a series of stamps under its Stamp Series every year till completion of the project: Date of Souvenir Sheet issue: 15.04.2020
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