HOW WE AUTHENTICATE BASQUIAT
Jean-Michel Basquiat developed his very own and strongly identifiable painting style. He also created his own vocabulary of skulls, crowns, dollar signs, marks, symbols, some protest-type of text and SAMO written somewhere.
Determining if he did create a newly discovered painting requires a deep knowledge of how he painted. There are things he never did, things he nearly always did, colors he never mixed. Text and words he never used. He had his very own way of applying paint. He didn’t paint edge to edge, he left a certain amount of blank space, empty room, margins he was comfortable with. He had his own handwriting style. Many of his works have a strong humorous component. Jean-Michel Basquiat had technical limits. His figures and representations all fit within a narrow range of not-too-badly done and not-too-well-done.
This advanced knowledge of how Basquiat painted is in addition to what the authentication methods reveal such as:
- - Comparative analyses
- - Morelian comparisons
- - Consistency checks
- - Signature and handwriting forensic examinations
- - AI Artificial Intelligence
- - X-rays
- - Provenance research and reconstruction of the chain of ownership
- - Circumstantial evidence
- - Research for documentary evidence
- - Fingerprints examination
- - DNA match
- - and other investigative options
If you own a new discovered or long forgotten painting or drawing by Jean-Michel Basquiat, perhaps something he gifted, left behind, or painted during one his trips abroad, send us some photos of it.
We issue certificates of authenticity for all authenticated Basquiat paintings and drawings and other Basquiat signed items.