Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled
Title: Untitled
Medium: Mixed Media
Size: 12.5" x 17.5"
Datable to 1981, the present sheet is an impressive and vibrant example of Basquiat’s draughtsmanship at the onset of his rise to fame. The skull was a particularly favourite motif of the artist’s, and appears often in both paintings and drawings, often accompanied by words and combinations of letters and numbers. As Robert Storr has noted of Basquiat’s imagery, ‘Heads, often skulls, chant his words. Or rather inhale and exhale them through gritted teeth, as if sucking in the variously dense or diffuse atmosphere they create, only to cough it out again in great gusts.’ The crown drawn in red at the upper right is another motif Basquiat used extensively from around 1982 onwards, and is a legacy of his days as a graffiti artist; this ‘personalized, even trademark, image of a three-pointed crown…often accompanied a figure but occasionally appeared on its own throughout the remainder of the artist’s career.’ The symbol of a heart with a cross also appears in several other works by Basquiat. The present sheet is accompanied by a certificate issued by Gerard Basquiat for the Authentication Committee for the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.