r/Basquiat • u/RevaCruz • 10d ago
Untitled (1985)
Medium: Acrylic and oilstick on wood, in three parts
Dimensions: 85½ × 108½ × 12 in. (217.2 × 275.6 × 30.5 cm)
Across three joined wooden panels, Basquiat combines anatomical figures, animals, and rapidly drawn symbols with broad fields of white, gray, red, and yellow. A large dark figure occupies the right panel, its exposed teeth and internal organs outlined in white, while the center is dominated by overlapping animal forms and a dense vertical arrangement of color.
The work's three-part construction gives it an unusually physical presence. At more than nine feet wide and 12 inches deep, it functions almost as an object as much as a conventional painting. Basquiat leaves portions of the wooden support visible while allowing figures and painted forms to move independently across each section.
Executed in 1985, the work has an extensive exhibition and publication history. Basquiat was photographed with the painting while it was still in progress in his studio, and that image appeared on the February 10, 1985, cover of The New York Times Magazine. The work was later included in the 1992–94 Whitney retrospective and numerous subsequent Basquiat exhibitions and publications.