Jean-Michel Basquiat’s ‘200 Yen’ to Enchant Top U.S. Museums

Renowned American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s ‘200 Yen’ iconic painting, , previously auctioned by LiveAuctioneers is poised to make a resounding return.

Basquiat, a trailblazer of the Neo-expressionism movement during the 1980s, gained acclaim for his radical, expressionistic pieces that passionately called for the recognition of oppressed groups, denouncing racism, colonization, and capitalist domination.

The explicit reference to ‘200 YEN’ aligns with the average exchange rate of the American Dollar to the Japanese Yen in 1982, symbolizing the rise of the Japanese economy as a dominating force ‘colonizing’ the early 1980s hegemony. Phrases like ‘TAX-FREE’ and imagery of a rocket draw parallels to the Opium Wars, a favored topic for Basquiat. The connection draws a historical parallel between the imposition of addictive products on colonized people in the past and the modern economic dependence imposed by new colonizers on the West.

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s meteoric rise to fame in the late 1970s marked him as a leading figure in the East Village art scene. His works soon commanded top prices globally, with pieces showcased in prestigious museums, including the MOMA. In 2017, his 1982 masterpiece, ‘Untitled‘, depicting a black skull with red and yellow rivulets, set a record-breaking auction price of $110.5 million, solidifying Basquiat’s position as one of the most influential American artists.