Untitled

Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled is an expressive example of the artist’s commitment to innovation and iconography. Created in 1981 on the cusp of Basquiat’s skyrocket to success, the present work exemplifies the artist's perception of self through the fragmented and disjointed heads, which became an important symbol within his work.

The same year Untitled was created, it was included in the seminal exhibition, New York/New York at MoMA PS1. Curated by Diego Cortez, New York/New Wave included nearly 100 artists who embodied an important moment of change within contemporary art, where punk and new wave music strongly influenced the downtown cultural scene and artists considered to be on the fringes of society were given an institutional platform to share their work, with many of the artists having been presented and experienced by the public in a museum for the first time, including Basquiat.

Of all the artists and works in the exhibition, Basquiat’s were particularly distinct for their unique visual language. Across the artist’s practice, there is an implied sense of continuity but also innovation. The present work is an example of his boundary-pushing approach to art-making, where the lines between technology and tradition are blurred. Drawing is a constant throughout Basquiat’s practice – it is the artist’s primary mode of making. It is a raw and immediate expression of emotions, ideas, and thoughts. In the present lot, the drawing’s edges are torn and the paper is weathered, lending an authentic quality that possesses a sense of history. While the drawing is seemingly ephemeral, it is in actuality preserved from any further disruption due to the artist’s use of Xerox, which he adopted into his artistic process in 1979. Coinciding with his rise to fame, Basquiat was deeply immersed in the burgeoning world of Hip-Hop in the late seventies and early eighties. Within the genre, Xerox became a means of reproduction and dissemination of original works by artists. The use of Xerox freed Basquiat from the permanence of alteration, allowing him to freely experiment with compositions, textures, and arrangements.

In both medium and subject matter, this work is a precursor to his breakthrough year of 1982. The present lot is an encapsulation of one of the artist’s most recognizable motifs and practices, as well as his embrace of exploration and evolution.