Untitled

A rare, formative work that features Jean-Michel Basquiat’s early “SAMO ©” inscription, this Untitled work on paper from 1981 epitomizes the exceptional combination of sophisticated draftsmanship and the raw, painterly verve that propelled Basquiat to fame in the early years of his brief but legendary career. Untitled is distinguished by a sense of dynamic energy coupled with a rapid-fire execution, in which the artist creates a vibrant, pulsating vision of the human figure–a prevalent motif in these early works on paper. The frenetic energies of Basquiat’s newly-blossoming talent issue forth in a rush of unbridled inertia, as he feverishly renders the human head in a barrage of deliberate strokes. Basquiat lavishes attention to the facial features, encircling the wide, bulging eyes in several concentric bands of looping oilstick, and depicts its grimaced facade in lively, multi-colored markings. This important drawing was exhibited in Basquiat’s first ever one-man show at Emilio Mazzoli’s gallery in Modena, Italy in 1981, where it was displayed alongside other works now considered to be early masterpieces. Having been acquired directly from the Mazzoli show, the drawing has remained in the same private collection for nearly forty years.
Untitled bears witness to the flowing creativity that can be seen in the artist’s early work, as he began to integrate the graffiti-style immediacy of his SAMO alter-ego in a series of brilliant works on paper that display the artist’s capacity for greatness. Their keen sense of composition and draftsmanship is unrivalled, especially given the early days of their execution. In Untitled, Basquiat depicts several of his most important recurring motifs that would provide the foundation for his mature style. In a swift and upward thrust of the wrist, Basquiat renders his signature image–his famous three-pointed crown–in bright, red ink in the lower left corner of the paper sheet. He then continues the line, as he guides his hand upward toward the top left corner, where it culminates in a sketch of a single, red strawberry. Another three-pointed crown is depicted just below the figure’s chin, lingering like a visual coda over the enigmatic phrase “ASPURIA.” Other cryptic numbers and symbols float along the lower edge of the sheet, such as “1<10” and the number sequence “0012030,” as well as an American-style baseball. Basquiat’s chosen palette of bright, bold colors pop against the creamy white paper sheet, as he ravishes the figure’s features in a torrent of orange, brown, yellow and blue strokes. The style of its rapidly-executed features belies the underlying finesse that Basquiat wields to create a figure that is remarkably modeled and three-dimensional. Especially in the figure’s eyes, which seem to float atop the surface of the sheet and but also recede into the figure’s face, Basquiat allows the varying colors to work their perspectival magic, creating a striking degree of verisimilitude while adhering to a graffiti-type look that’s brief and succinct.
Untitled was likely created in the first half of 1981, around the time of Basquiat’s participation in New Wave/New York, the now legendary P.S.1 exhibit curated by Diego Cortez that took place in February of that year. After the show, Cortez discussed the possibility of mounting a show with the Italian gallerist Emilio Mazzoli, and he contacted him through his friend, artist Sandro Chia. Chia was the first art world person to admire Basquiat’s work at the P.S.1 show. Mazzoli subsequently came to New York City with the Italian art critic Achille Bonito-Oliva in the early Spring of 1981. They viewed Basquiat’s work at Cortez’s 36th Street loft which he shared with Semiotext(e) editor, Sylvère Lotringer. Mazzoli bought a core group of works from Cortez, who was Basquiat’s agent at the time. Many of these works and more were shown at Basquiat’s first ever one-man exhibition in Modena, Italy—the SAMO exhibit that took place between May and June of 1981. Mazzoli flew Basquiat and Cortez to Italy for the exhibition, and Basquiat did several more works for the show while in Modena. Largely due to the keen guidance of Cortez, the exhibit proved to be a complete success, allowing Basquiat to build upon his already burgeoning fame before returning to New York, where he would spend the fall months painting in the basement of Annina Nosei’s SoHo gallery. The Modena exhibition would also pique the interest of his future primary dealer—Bruno Bischofberger.
In what has become his hallmark style, Basquiat depicts enigmatic words and symbols in Untitled, with the single word “ASPURIA” lingering like a poetic coda that caps off the drawing’s frenetic action. At least one other work on paper from this early era features the word "ASPURIA," which might be a play on the Italian “aspirare,” which means “to aspire.” “Aspuria” also features in a line of poetry that Basquiat wrote between 1980 and 1981 in his college-ruled Composition notebook:. “colors with numbers on the back / brooming into mezzo / aspuria.” Basquiat often created nonsensical words or crossed them out, and “ASPURA” may refer to an Italian surname or simply point to the artist’s love of poetry–harkening back to his early days as SAMO, spraying cryptic poetry throughout the streets of New York.
This work possesses the urgency of the street combined with the primitive or childlike aesthetic characteristic of Jean Dubuffet’s art brut. In a similar way in which these early artists strived to create art that was free from culturally constructed aesthetics and traditional artistic conventions, Basquiat’s position as an artiste maudit, or one living outside of accepted society, set him apart from other artist of his time. Free from the confines of traditional artistic production, he rebelled against the established and mainstream art world, and in doing so, he himself became the poster child for an entire generation of artists who positioned themselves against the status quo.