Boxer

This painting, which depicts a black boxer in the foreground of a white graffiti-filled backdrop, was sold at auction for $13.5 million in 2008. It had been held as part of the private collection of Lars Ulrich, the drummer for the heavy metal band Metallica, who decided to sell this painting along with Basquiat’s other masterpiece Profit I in order to raise funds to build a house for his family. This painting is a typical example of Basquiat’s bold graffiti style, used to enhance a heroic art piece into a full examination of the character’s figure and stance, from the skeleton -like smile to the disfigures musculature in the arms and laces of the boxing gloves.