Wow do we have something special for today: A beautiful hand painted and clear coated piece of rock-able art featuring several depictions of the work of Jean Michel Basquiat! The front features slices of "Skull" 1981, "Cabeza" 1984, "LNAPRK" 1982, "Profit I" 1982, "Untitled" 1982, as well as the record cover he did for "Beat Bop" and his pre-fame graffiti (on the guitar as well as the case). Yes, even the case has been painted! Jean Michel Basquiat was an American artist born in Brooklyn to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother. Basquiat first achieved notoriety 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, post-punk and street art movements had coalesced. By the 1980s, he was exhibiting his neo-expressionist paintings in galleries and museums internationally. The Whitney Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective of his art in 1992. Basquiat's art focused on "suggestive 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 n his paintings as a "springboard to deeper truths about the individual", as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism, while his poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class strugle. He died at his art studio at age 27.The artwork on the guitar was painted in acrylic and clear coated by guitar artist Robbie Burger and was signed and dated on the back under "Profit I" (the original painting was once owned by Lars of Metallica"
The actual guitar is a bit of a mystery. Purchased at an estate sale, the Les Paul had no name brand anywhere to be found (I even checked the back of the pickups and around on the inside). The front of the headstock was blank but had to small hole which I'm guessing had a badge with whatever brand it is that has long been lost. It has a chambered body (giving a hollow body sound). It was probably made in Japan in the 70's by one of those Univox/Aria/Greco/Hondo/Ibanez/Burny/Bruno/Tokai/etc... kind of companies/brands. It was certainly used to rock out at some point during the last 40 or so years and had all kind of ware, dings, scratches, cracks, you name it, before it was beautifully and meticulously hand painted. Rock and roll relic meets fine art. The original owner had painted the case green. To keep with the Basquiat theme, it was then painted black, and graffitized looking at old pictures from the beginning stages of Basquiats career. This is your opportunity to own a a rare vintage instrument art piece.