.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Synthesizing raw immediacy with dazzling feats of chromatic handling and linear daring, Untitled evinces a precocious talent. Jean-Michel Basquiat was just twenty-five when he created this work but was already assured of a masterpiece; featuring a full-scale figure in monumental format, Untitled is rife with autobiography, social outcry and heart-stopping beauty. It is a powerful evocation of layered content and staggering wall-power.
The central thrust of Untitled resides in its crude expressionistically painted figure. The human form assumed utmost importance in Basquiat's oeuvre; often set adrift against seeming wastelands that were either cluttered with gestural drips and hieroglyphic scrawls or left elegantly spare as in the present work, it became symbolic of the black man making his way through the urban world. Although Basquiat's meteoric rise in the art world had rendered him widespread fame by 1985, he was acutely aware of racism within its ranks. Apart from the bigotry that he frequently met with on the mean streets of New York, he was particularly sensitive about being vaunted as a black artist of untamed and "primitive" talent and anxious about being co-opted as a mascot by the predominantly white art establishment. Reacting against such prejudice with works such as Untitled, he brought it into central focus. The ghoulish figure in the painting becomes a sort of alter-ego; depicted with faux-naïve dexterity it mockingly assumes the mantle of noble-savage that Basquiat himself tried to shake off. It acquires a totemic quality as it becomes a projection of the artist's fears, anxieties, and rage.
Crucial to Basquiat's vision and development as an artist, the human form was more than just a surrogate self; it adapted to the more generic guise of the black hero. Stating that his subjects were about "Royalty, Heroism, the Streets," Basquiat often invoked African American musicians and sportsmen in his work. Drawing from a personal pantheon of twentieth century icons such as Miles Davis, Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Hank Aaron, Mohammed Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson, he often conferred upon them religious or royal auras via halos or crowns. Functioning as role models, these public personas provided the artist with the grand lineage of black heroism that he desperately sought both on a personal level and in his art. Depicted in stylized form like the central figure of Untitled, these "primitive" icons of Basquiat's repertoire were left deliberately unspecific, thereby accommodating a conflation of the artist with his chosen ancestors. As emboldened fronts, these totems faced the world as both personal embodiments and public crusades against racism.
Basquiat spoke of his art as "80 violence" and brought a visceral vocabulary to his work that had its origins in the street. In vivid scrawls of black, green, red and yellow Untitled reflects his earlier guise as a graffiti-artist while the scavenged materials of its support are particularly resonant of his earliest works. Conceived on wooden slats culled from a door or cupboard and decorated with discarded bottle-caps around its frame, Untitled carries the raw power of the gritty metropolis.
However, Basquiat balanced such street credibility with an extremely refined formal understanding of art and indeed, vetted the spilled-and-scratched style that he employed in works such as Untitled through the annals of art. Pablo Picasso featured strongly in his work and the Spaniard's brash, aggressive manner and liberal quotation of "primitive" African sculpture were tremendously important in Basquiat's depiction of the figure.
In addition, Jean Dubuffet and Cy Twombly fueled and legitimized Basquiat's graffiti-inspired sensibility while Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning unlocked the young artist's inclination for muscular gesturalism. Just as he had enlisted African Americans as his mentors in life, Basquiat accumulated a list of artists who provided a range of visual idioms from which to forge his own style. However, rather than sycophantic emulation, Basquiat created his own trademark: in works such as Untitled, he displayed the remarkable juxtaposition of unprecedented brutality and unadulterated beauty that became his own characteristic contribution to the cannon.
The central thrust of Untitled resides in its crude expressionistically painted figure. The human form assumed utmost importance in Basquiat's oeuvre; often set adrift against seeming wastelands that were either cluttered with gestural drips and hieroglyphic scrawls or left elegantly spare as in the present work, it became symbolic of the black man making his way through the urban world. Although Basquiat's meteoric rise in the art world had rendered him widespread fame by 1985, he was acutely aware of racism within its ranks. Apart from the bigotry that he frequently met with on the mean streets of New York, he was particularly sensitive about being vaunted as a black artist of untamed and "primitive" talent and anxious about being co-opted as a mascot by the predominantly white art establishment. Reacting against such prejudice with works such as Untitled, he brought it into central focus. The ghoulish figure in the painting becomes a sort of alter-ego; depicted with faux-naïve dexterity it mockingly assumes the mantle of noble-savage that Basquiat himself tried to shake off. It acquires a totemic quality as it becomes a projection of the artist's fears, anxieties, and rage.
Crucial to Basquiat's vision and development as an artist, the human form was more than just a surrogate self; it adapted to the more generic guise of the black hero. Stating that his subjects were about "Royalty, Heroism, the Streets," Basquiat often invoked African American musicians and sportsmen in his work. Drawing from a personal pantheon of twentieth century icons such as Miles Davis, Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Hank Aaron, Mohammed Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson, he often conferred upon them religious or royal auras via halos or crowns. Functioning as role models, these public personas provided the artist with the grand lineage of black heroism that he desperately sought both on a personal level and in his art. Depicted in stylized form like the central figure of Untitled, these "primitive" icons of Basquiat's repertoire were left deliberately unspecific, thereby accommodating a conflation of the artist with his chosen ancestors. As emboldened fronts, these totems faced the world as both personal embodiments and public crusades against racism.
Basquiat spoke of his art as "80 violence" and brought a visceral vocabulary to his work that had its origins in the street. In vivid scrawls of black, green, red and yellow Untitled reflects his earlier guise as a graffiti-artist while the scavenged materials of its support are particularly resonant of his earliest works. Conceived on wooden slats culled from a door or cupboard and decorated with discarded bottle-caps around its frame, Untitled carries the raw power of the gritty metropolis.
However, Basquiat balanced such street credibility with an extremely refined formal understanding of art and indeed, vetted the spilled-and-scratched style that he employed in works such as Untitled through the annals of art. Pablo Picasso featured strongly in his work and the Spaniard's brash, aggressive manner and liberal quotation of "primitive" African sculpture were tremendously important in Basquiat's depiction of the figure.
In addition, Jean Dubuffet and Cy Twombly fueled and legitimized Basquiat's graffiti-inspired sensibility while Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning unlocked the young artist's inclination for muscular gesturalism. Just as he had enlisted African Americans as his mentors in life, Basquiat accumulated a list of artists who provided a range of visual idioms from which to forge his own style. However, rather than sycophantic emulation, Basquiat created his own trademark: in works such as Untitled, he displayed the remarkable juxtaposition of unprecedented brutality and unadulterated beauty that became his own characteristic contribution to the cannon.