Ten works by Jean-Michel Basquiat from Ken Griffin’s collection will go on display at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
Titled “Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols“, the exhibition will centre on the most common themes found in the works of Basquiat, “such as portraiture and the figure, script and language, and his conceptual amplification of color, form, and composition.” It will feature 9 paintings and one sculpture from the collection of Ken Griffin, one of the most prominent collectors in the world.
Perhaps the highlight of the exhibition would be one specific work: Untitled (1862). The painting holds the record for the most expensive Basquiat work, a record it set in May 2017 when it was sold for $110.5 million at Sotheby’s. Interestingly, it wasn’t Griffin who bought the work but rather Japanese business magnate Yusaku Maezawa. A Basquiat aficionado, Maezawa also bought another 1982 painting by the artist for $57.3 million in 2016. Maezawa sold the painting to Ken Griffin in 2024 for an undisclosed amount, but reports suggest it could have been north of 200 million.
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The exhibition will be curated by Franklin Sirmans, the director of Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), and Megan Kincaid, the museum’s collection curator. In an unusual move, Ken Griffin would also be involved in the exhibition via his Griffin Catalyst initiative. Sirmans said, “At PAMM, this exhibition feels both inevitable and vital. Miami’s layered histories, diasporic communities, and global outlook create a context where Basquiat’s visual language—rooted in memory, migration, and cultural hybridity—can be experienced with particular depth and immediacy.”
