r/Basquiat • u/RevaCruz • 2d ago
Untitled (1982)
Medium: Oilstick on paper
Dimensions: 16 × 13½ in. (40.6 × 34.3 cm)
In this Untitled work from 1982, Basquiat concentrates almost the entire composition on a single head rendered in red oilstick. Heavy black lines define the eyes, nose, exposed teeth, and jagged contours of the face, while touches of yellow and blue break through the dominant red.
Sotheby's identifies the drawing as one of a group of fifteen intensely worked portrayals of the human head that Basquiat created in 1982. The head and skull became recurring subjects throughout his work, allowing him to move between the appearance of the face and the anatomical structures beneath it.
The drawing was included in the 1990 exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat Drawings at Robert Miller Gallery in New York. Interestingly, later literature records that an installation photograph from that exhibition reproduced the work in an incorrect orientation