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Lot Essay
'Andy Warhol was the apple of his eye since he was fifteen or sixteen. He wanted Warhol's fame. Jean Michel had a mission to accomplish; he really wanted to be somebody, and he was hell-bent on getting there. He always said he was going to be the next Warhol' (Z. Leonhard quoted in Jean Michel Basquiat, exh. cat., Kunsthaus Wien, Vienna 1999, p. 68)
Vivid with its dramatic expanse of cerulean blue, Untitled (Skull B) is a monumental canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Proliferating with his signature motifs of skulls emblazoned with energetic eyes and scrambled verbal outpourings, Untitled (Skull B) is laden with Basquiat's personal hieroglyphics, offering a glimpse into the active mind of the young artist. Executed in 1984, the same year as his collaboration with Andy Warhol, Basquiat's acknowledged idol, Untitled (Skull B) presents a fusing of his intensely expressive style with Warhol's trademark silkscreen technique. This radical integration of the silkscreen provided an immediate, elemental method of assimilating his drawings into paintings, reusing the same motifs in subsequent works. First formulated by hand, Basquiat was able to repeatedly use motifs with speed and accuracy. Here, the cool machine-like process of the silkscreen is contrasted with the overt painterly gesture of Basquiat's hand; a juxtaposition that is present throughout his collaborations with Warhol.
At the centre of the canvas, a large, almost menacing skull appears suspended in the vastness of colour. With piercing, mustard yellow eyes, it glares outwards, flanked on all sides by interpretations of the cranium. Protruding from its crown, two slender hand-painted poppy red lines extend upwards, recalling the antennas of old television sets. Between the two antennas, like a crude halo or charged electric current, Basquiat's uninhibited brushstrokes of yellow and black radiate from the picture plane.
The recurrent portrayal of anatomical components in Basquiat's work stems from a chance encounter and early fascination with the human anatomy. When he was seven, Basquiat was hit by a car whilst playing in the street. During a traumatic hospitalisation that resulted in the removal of his spleen, Basquiat's mother gave him a copy of Gray's Anatomy, in hopes of providing him with 'a diagram for healing' (P. Hoban, Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art, London, 1998, p. 19). In Untitled (Skull B), Basquiat fills the canvas with his potent iconography, culled from his own memory. This practice of appropriation from sources was not limited to personal experience, but included a vast range of material, most prominently from mass media and culture. As Basquiat once professed: 'I'm usually in front of the television. I have to have some source material around me to work off'(Basquiat quoted in interview with B. Johnston and T. Davis, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, [DVD] New York, 2011).
In some ways, Basquiat's appropriation of popular culture can also be seen as a response to the artistic situation developing in New York's East Village during the early eighties. The inability of young artists to break into the chic SoHo art world resulted in the transformation of this area in Manhattan into a makeshift art centre, populated by young people in their twenties all trying to 'make it' as artists. Basquiat was a frequent visitor and personality at downtown nightclubs such as the Mudd Club and CBGB's. During this time, he was a member of a band, Gray, that would play sporadically at club nights and openly participated in all forms of deviant behaviour. Engaging freely and without inhibition in the youth culture of the East Village, Basquiat never lacked sources of inspiration.
A pastiche of Basquiat's mental musings, Untitled (Skull B) contains his recognisable gesture of verbal and pictorial obscuration. Coining it his 'own version of pentimento', Basquiat eclipses another skull motif with an energetic application of bright cobalt whilst a small aperture of red emerges through the dominant blue (J. Basquiat quoted in J. Clement, Widow Basquiat, Edinburgh 2000, p. 40). In a conscious borrowing of an Old Master technique, Basquiat once explained his method: 'I scratch out and erase but never so much that they don't know what was there' (Ibid). This pictorial strategy gives his distinct vernacular a certain ambiguity, which is further amplified by his verbal graphics and textual plays. A stream of consciousness flows from the artist's dark and unsettled mind, manifested in the evolutionary terms 'chimpanzee', 'neanderthal','gibbon' and 'pithecanthropus' scrawled in the corner of Untitled (Skull B), and accompanied by seemingly random numerical digits.
In a similar, chaotic fashion, Basquiat's writes the word 'teeth', effacing the text so that only two letters remain visible. Suggestive of his earlier days as SAMO, the rebellious graffiti poet of lower Manhattan, Basquiat continues to pay tribute to the culture of graffiti. On the streets, one day's work tagging an abandoned wall would be the next day sprayed over by another unruly youth. Here, in a Twombly-like gesture of language play, the word 'teeth' is only partially obscured. While Twombly cancelled with the true aim of cancelling, Basquiat cancels to reveal: 'I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them' (J. Basquiat quoted in D. Buchhard & S. Keller (eds.), Basquiat, exh. cat., Fondation Beyeler, Basel 2010, p. XXII).
Similarly, Basquiat did not discriminate in his appetite for 'source material', citing history, science, literature, as well as his own urban existence. The word 'skull-cap' operates as a multifaceted signifier, referencing indigenous African clothing, hip-hop culture, and scientific jargon. Variations of the skull cap are worn by Africans as part of their customary dress. This tradition was translated from its original context into a widespread practice in the United States by African-Americans who would wear kufi caps in time of celebration. With the rise of hip-hop music in New York during the eighties, the skull-cap was appropriated again, this time as a fashion statement. It is also the colloquial term for the calvaria, the four curved bones surrounding the brain. Interestingly, the screenprinted skull-cap to the left of the central skull in Untitled (Skull B) appears closely appropriated from Henry Gray's scientific diagram.
Traditionally, the depiction of a skull in painting carries connotations of a momento mori, a reminder of the inevitability of death and the mortality of men. In Untitled (Skull B) , the skull functions in some ways as a prophetic momento mori for the troubled artist. Basquiat nevertheless permeates life into his skulls. As seen in his 1982 painting, Untitled (Skull) and in this painting, the artist refuses to leave them as inexpressive or inanimate objects. The unrelenting and ominous stare of the central skull is reminiscent of an anthropomorphic African, tribal head mask. In a bold and frenetic assemblage of visual and textual ciphers, Untitled (Skull B) offers insight into Basquiat's own tortuous life and reputation as enfant maudit of the 1980s New York art scene.
Vivid with its dramatic expanse of cerulean blue, Untitled (Skull B) is a monumental canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Proliferating with his signature motifs of skulls emblazoned with energetic eyes and scrambled verbal outpourings, Untitled (Skull B) is laden with Basquiat's personal hieroglyphics, offering a glimpse into the active mind of the young artist. Executed in 1984, the same year as his collaboration with Andy Warhol, Basquiat's acknowledged idol, Untitled (Skull B) presents a fusing of his intensely expressive style with Warhol's trademark silkscreen technique. This radical integration of the silkscreen provided an immediate, elemental method of assimilating his drawings into paintings, reusing the same motifs in subsequent works. First formulated by hand, Basquiat was able to repeatedly use motifs with speed and accuracy. Here, the cool machine-like process of the silkscreen is contrasted with the overt painterly gesture of Basquiat's hand; a juxtaposition that is present throughout his collaborations with Warhol.
At the centre of the canvas, a large, almost menacing skull appears suspended in the vastness of colour. With piercing, mustard yellow eyes, it glares outwards, flanked on all sides by interpretations of the cranium. Protruding from its crown, two slender hand-painted poppy red lines extend upwards, recalling the antennas of old television sets. Between the two antennas, like a crude halo or charged electric current, Basquiat's uninhibited brushstrokes of yellow and black radiate from the picture plane.
The recurrent portrayal of anatomical components in Basquiat's work stems from a chance encounter and early fascination with the human anatomy. When he was seven, Basquiat was hit by a car whilst playing in the street. During a traumatic hospitalisation that resulted in the removal of his spleen, Basquiat's mother gave him a copy of Gray's Anatomy, in hopes of providing him with 'a diagram for healing' (P. Hoban, Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art, London, 1998, p. 19). In Untitled (Skull B), Basquiat fills the canvas with his potent iconography, culled from his own memory. This practice of appropriation from sources was not limited to personal experience, but included a vast range of material, most prominently from mass media and culture. As Basquiat once professed: 'I'm usually in front of the television. I have to have some source material around me to work off'(Basquiat quoted in interview with B. Johnston and T. Davis, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, [DVD] New York, 2011).
In some ways, Basquiat's appropriation of popular culture can also be seen as a response to the artistic situation developing in New York's East Village during the early eighties. The inability of young artists to break into the chic SoHo art world resulted in the transformation of this area in Manhattan into a makeshift art centre, populated by young people in their twenties all trying to 'make it' as artists. Basquiat was a frequent visitor and personality at downtown nightclubs such as the Mudd Club and CBGB's. During this time, he was a member of a band, Gray, that would play sporadically at club nights and openly participated in all forms of deviant behaviour. Engaging freely and without inhibition in the youth culture of the East Village, Basquiat never lacked sources of inspiration.
A pastiche of Basquiat's mental musings, Untitled (Skull B) contains his recognisable gesture of verbal and pictorial obscuration. Coining it his 'own version of pentimento', Basquiat eclipses another skull motif with an energetic application of bright cobalt whilst a small aperture of red emerges through the dominant blue (J. Basquiat quoted in J. Clement, Widow Basquiat, Edinburgh 2000, p. 40). In a conscious borrowing of an Old Master technique, Basquiat once explained his method: 'I scratch out and erase but never so much that they don't know what was there' (Ibid). This pictorial strategy gives his distinct vernacular a certain ambiguity, which is further amplified by his verbal graphics and textual plays. A stream of consciousness flows from the artist's dark and unsettled mind, manifested in the evolutionary terms 'chimpanzee', 'neanderthal','gibbon' and 'pithecanthropus' scrawled in the corner of Untitled (Skull B), and accompanied by seemingly random numerical digits.
In a similar, chaotic fashion, Basquiat's writes the word 'teeth', effacing the text so that only two letters remain visible. Suggestive of his earlier days as SAMO, the rebellious graffiti poet of lower Manhattan, Basquiat continues to pay tribute to the culture of graffiti. On the streets, one day's work tagging an abandoned wall would be the next day sprayed over by another unruly youth. Here, in a Twombly-like gesture of language play, the word 'teeth' is only partially obscured. While Twombly cancelled with the true aim of cancelling, Basquiat cancels to reveal: 'I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them' (J. Basquiat quoted in D. Buchhard & S. Keller (eds.), Basquiat, exh. cat., Fondation Beyeler, Basel 2010, p. XXII).
Similarly, Basquiat did not discriminate in his appetite for 'source material', citing history, science, literature, as well as his own urban existence. The word 'skull-cap' operates as a multifaceted signifier, referencing indigenous African clothing, hip-hop culture, and scientific jargon. Variations of the skull cap are worn by Africans as part of their customary dress. This tradition was translated from its original context into a widespread practice in the United States by African-Americans who would wear kufi caps in time of celebration. With the rise of hip-hop music in New York during the eighties, the skull-cap was appropriated again, this time as a fashion statement. It is also the colloquial term for the calvaria, the four curved bones surrounding the brain. Interestingly, the screenprinted skull-cap to the left of the central skull in Untitled (Skull B) appears closely appropriated from Henry Gray's scientific diagram.
Traditionally, the depiction of a skull in painting carries connotations of a momento mori, a reminder of the inevitability of death and the mortality of men. In Untitled (Skull B) , the skull functions in some ways as a prophetic momento mori for the troubled artist. Basquiat nevertheless permeates life into his skulls. As seen in his 1982 painting, Untitled (Skull) and in this painting, the artist refuses to leave them as inexpressive or inanimate objects. The unrelenting and ominous stare of the central skull is reminiscent of an anthropomorphic African, tribal head mask. In a bold and frenetic assemblage of visual and textual ciphers, Untitled (Skull B) offers insight into Basquiat's own tortuous life and reputation as enfant maudit of the 1980s New York art scene.