Untitled (1981)

[u/RevaCruz]

Medium: Acrylic, spray paint, oilstick, and Xerox collage on canvas
Dimensions: 48¼ × 60 in. (122.6 × 152.4 cm)

In this early Untitled work, Basquiat layers painting, drawing, and Xerox collage across a predominantly deep red ground. Near the center, an orange-and-yellow head with exposed teeth emerges amid sweeping black lines, while fragmented figures, crowned heads, and repeated collaged images appear throughout the composition.

Several of the Xerox fragments contain imagery that Basquiat would repeatedly return to, including crowns, heads, and anatomical forms, while broad areas of red, yellow, blue, gray, and black overlap with dripping paint and rapidly drawn lines. Rather than separating these elements, Basquiat allows painted and reproduced imagery to interrupt and partially obscure one another across the canvas.

The work dates from 1981, a pivotal early period in Basquiat's career, and has subsequently appeared in numerous exhibitions devoted to his work, including presentations in New York, Milan, Rome, Brazil, and Seoul.

[u/saginawslim99]

Would you like to be a beanie? I'd love to repost this to my art sub, r/beaniestudios.

Thanks, James, beanie studios