“Brother’s Sausage” (1983, acrylic, oil-stick, and xeroxed paper collage on canvas and paper; on six hinged panels, 48 x 187 inches overall), is one of several large works made of separate canvases hinged together in 1983, like the more well known “Toussaint L’Overture vs Savonarola”. In these works, Basquiat was very interested in William Burroughs’ conception of the cut-up, from the use of collage to the painting of disparate images together, and especially in the random arrangement of panels that make up the work. The paintings were hinged together (by Basquiat’s then assistant Stephen Torton) partly to fit in the elevator on the way out of the artist’s Crosby St. loft.

The work plays with elements of Neo-Dada use of chance, Pop Art use of everyday commercial imagery (as in the Brother’s Sausage sign), socially conscious comment, and the post-minimalist use of grid structure, serialization and reproduction, as well as the Neo-Expressionist gestural figuration he was known for.

While this work did not sell, two great major Basquiat drawings sold for prices much higher than the auction house’s estimate. An untitled suite of 14 drawings from 1981, and important early work that hearkens back to his graffiti days, and was shown in his first one-person show at Annina Nosie’s, sold for $1,986,500 (estimate $500,000 – $700,000.

One of his large scale (60 x 40 inches) drawings of a figure done in anxious gestural oil-stick on paper, surrounded by letters and other marks sold at $3,106,500 (estimate $1,800,000 – $2,800,000). This was from the same series of drawings being shown simultaneously at Stellan Holm Gallery.

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