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Lot Essay
Jean-Michel Basquiat's Number 18 is an early example of the artist's energetic and groundbreaking approach to art. Painted in 1981 at the very beginning of his meteoric rise to art-world superstardom, the snatched glimpses of the rudimentary figures and energetic scrawls and cyphers, as seen through a veil of white acrylic paint, give a tantalizing view of the characteristic language for which his art would become so celebrated. Comprised of fragments of Xeroxed color copies of some of his earlier works which he then tore up, assembled onto canvas and covered in a diaphanous layer of white acrylic paint, this tantalizing method of construction is one of the earliest examples of Basquiat's use of this collage technique. Over the next few years, he would return to this method of working only a handful of times, resulting in an intriguing and distinct group of paintings that helped to establish his reputation as one of the most original and audacious artists of his generation.
Seen through the shroud of white acrylic paint, one can identify some of the characters and motifs that would come to play such an important role in Basquiat's subsequent body of work. Front and center amongst these is the central figure of the dark-skinned man wearing a crown. This simple figure displays all the energetic expression that was to become Basquiat's signature style and is executed with a frenetic burst of blue oilstick, this rudimentary figure possesses a dramatic sense of power that is in stark contrast to its rapid execution. Importantly, the figure wearing a crown is one of the artist's most iconic motifs. Basquiat reserved the crown for some of his most important figures, often African American stars of the sports and music worlds, that Basquiat personally admired and eulogized in his paintings. Also visible in Basquiat's painterly concoction are glimpses of the artist's rich arsenal of painterly expression. Passages of animated color are combined with expressive lines and drips that punctate the surface of the paintings. Indeed in this particular work, the textured nature of the collage, together with his liberal application of white acrylic adds an additional dimension and sense of animation to the work.
Basquiat had long admired other master draughtsman, particularly the intellectual scope and visual intensity of Leonardo da Vinci and the poetic nature of Cy Twombly's work. Basquiat often "quoted" da Vinci's work in his own paintings, for example the anatomical proliferations contained within Leonardo da Vinci's Greatest Hits. The lyricism of Cy Twombly was also a big influence on a young Basquiat. Like the older artist, Basquiat saw drawing as something you did--more like an activity than a medium--and critics have argued that by looking at Twombly's work, Basquiat gained permission to 'draw in the raw'--to feel able to produce work imbued with a uniqueness and intensity that has since become one of the leading factors in Basquiat's unique form of artistic expression.
By the time Basquiat painted Number 18 in 1981 he had already begun his heady ascent of the New York art world. After growing up in Brooklyn in a middle-class family of Puerto Rican and Haitian heritage, he dropped out of school to follow his passion for art. He drifted from sleeping on friend's couches to abandoned warehouses as he absorbed the raw energy of his downtown surroundings and began to make a name for himself as the mysterious SAMO, a graffiti artist whose "tags" began to appear across the city. Taking his inspirations from the urban decay around him, Basquiat's primal human figures and reductive style soon made their mark on the downtown art cognoscenti, excited by the originality and freshness that Basquiat's art displayed.
It is in this vein that Basquiat oscillates between the streets and the gallery in this unique composition that remains true to his graffiti roots in its simplified color palette and its stylistic impulsiveness. The work possesses the urgency of the street combined with the primitive or childlike aesthetic characteristic of Jean Dubuffet's Art Brut. In a similar way in which these artists strived to create art that was free from culturally constructed aesthetics and traditional artistic conventions, Basquiat's position as an artiste maudit, or one living outside of accepted society, set him apart from other artist of his time. Free from the confines of traditional artistic production, he rebelled against the established and mainstream art world, and in doing so, he himself became the poster child for an entire generation of artists who positioned themselves against the status quo.
Seen through the shroud of white acrylic paint, one can identify some of the characters and motifs that would come to play such an important role in Basquiat's subsequent body of work. Front and center amongst these is the central figure of the dark-skinned man wearing a crown. This simple figure displays all the energetic expression that was to become Basquiat's signature style and is executed with a frenetic burst of blue oilstick, this rudimentary figure possesses a dramatic sense of power that is in stark contrast to its rapid execution. Importantly, the figure wearing a crown is one of the artist's most iconic motifs. Basquiat reserved the crown for some of his most important figures, often African American stars of the sports and music worlds, that Basquiat personally admired and eulogized in his paintings. Also visible in Basquiat's painterly concoction are glimpses of the artist's rich arsenal of painterly expression. Passages of animated color are combined with expressive lines and drips that punctate the surface of the paintings. Indeed in this particular work, the textured nature of the collage, together with his liberal application of white acrylic adds an additional dimension and sense of animation to the work.
Basquiat had long admired other master draughtsman, particularly the intellectual scope and visual intensity of Leonardo da Vinci and the poetic nature of Cy Twombly's work. Basquiat often "quoted" da Vinci's work in his own paintings, for example the anatomical proliferations contained within Leonardo da Vinci's Greatest Hits. The lyricism of Cy Twombly was also a big influence on a young Basquiat. Like the older artist, Basquiat saw drawing as something you did--more like an activity than a medium--and critics have argued that by looking at Twombly's work, Basquiat gained permission to 'draw in the raw'--to feel able to produce work imbued with a uniqueness and intensity that has since become one of the leading factors in Basquiat's unique form of artistic expression.
By the time Basquiat painted Number 18 in 1981 he had already begun his heady ascent of the New York art world. After growing up in Brooklyn in a middle-class family of Puerto Rican and Haitian heritage, he dropped out of school to follow his passion for art. He drifted from sleeping on friend's couches to abandoned warehouses as he absorbed the raw energy of his downtown surroundings and began to make a name for himself as the mysterious SAMO, a graffiti artist whose "tags" began to appear across the city. Taking his inspirations from the urban decay around him, Basquiat's primal human figures and reductive style soon made their mark on the downtown art cognoscenti, excited by the originality and freshness that Basquiat's art displayed.
It is in this vein that Basquiat oscillates between the streets and the gallery in this unique composition that remains true to his graffiti roots in its simplified color palette and its stylistic impulsiveness. The work possesses the urgency of the street combined with the primitive or childlike aesthetic characteristic of Jean Dubuffet's Art Brut. In a similar way in which these artists strived to create art that was free from culturally constructed aesthetics and traditional artistic conventions, Basquiat's position as an artiste maudit, or one living outside of accepted society, set him apart from other artist of his time. Free from the confines of traditional artistic production, he rebelled against the established and mainstream art world, and in doing so, he himself became the poster child for an entire generation of artists who positioned themselves against the status quo.