Assouline Publishes a $1,400 Basquiat Collector’s Volume as the Market Stays Hot
Assouline has released Basquiat: The World of Jean-Michel, a 348-page collector’s book that gathers more than 200 artworks and archival photographs by and about Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988). Priced at $1,400, the volume joins the publisher’s Ultimate Collection of large-format, hand-bound editions and arrives with the scale and finish of an object meant to be kept, not merely read.
The book is organized into six thematic chapters, each built around a different strand of Basquiat’s practice. It moves from his recurring heads to the imprint of New York City on his visual language, then into silkscreens, layered surfaces, and the spiritual register that threads through much of his work. The structure gives the artist’s output a kind of internal map, one that emphasizes continuity across media rather than a simple chronology.
The project draws on a decade of primary research by Colour Themes, the independent art advisory and dealership founded by Philip Rebeiz and CJ Jones. Its contributor list spans Basquiat’s orbit and his afterlife in contemporary culture. George Condo, Peter Brant, and Lenny Kravitz are among the living contributors, while the volume also includes writings by Keith Haring, bell hooks, and Valentino Garavani. Bruno Bischofberger, Basquiat’s exclusive worldwide representative from 1982 until his death in 1988, is also cited in the book.
Several works receive particular attention, including Red Skull (1982), Untitled (Devil’s Head) (1987), and a group of 1984 silkscreen paintings that the book notes have rarely been studied in depth or shown together. The physical design extends that material sensitivity: the clamshell case is made from a tactile, canvas-like material that echoes Basquiat’s interest in unconventional surfaces.
The publication also lands at a moment when Basquiat’s market remains unusually strong. In November 2025, Crowns (Peso Neto), an early 1981 canvas, sold for $48.3 million at Sotheby’s in its first appearance at auction. This spring, Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) (1983) is headed to Sotheby’s with an estimate above $45 million. Basquiat’s auction record remains Untitled (1982), the skull painting that sold for $110.5 million at Sotheby’s in 2017, then the highest price ever paid at auction for an American artist’s work.
Taken together, the book and the market data point to the same conclusion: Basquiat’s work continues to move between scholarship, collecting, and cultural memory with unusual force.
