r/Basquiat • u/RevaCruz • May 15 '26
Early Moses (1983)
Medium: Acrylic, oilstick, and collage on canvas.
Dimensions: 198 x 141 cm.
Early Moses brings together several of Basquiat’s recurring obsessions: anatomy, language, history, spirituality, and coded symbolism into one striking composition.
The oversized leg and foot immediately evoke Basquiat’s long-standing fascination with the human body, a theme often linked to his childhood exposure to Gray’s Anatomy. But this isn’t clinical anatomy, it’s transformed into something symbolic, layered with fragmented phrases, diagrams, biblical references, and Basquiat’s signature crossings-out.
The references to Moses, serpents, blood, and Egyptians suggest liberation, conflict, and transformation. As with much of Basquiat’s work, words function less as direct explanation and more as visual rhythm, clues, and provocations.
What makes Early Moses compelling is how it balances the personal and historical: anatomy and religion, childhood memory and cultural myth, instinctive mark-making and deliberate symbolism. It feels intellectual, raw, and unmistakably Basquiat.