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拍品专文
In Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled composition from 1981, a distinct skull-like face hovers statically in the foreground. In its simplicity, the artist is able to conjure indelible emotions and existential inquires that are universally understood. From this primary point of reference, the piece may also be seen as a somber representation of Basquiat's life at the time, as he transitions from street artist to international art superstar.
Basquiat's artistic career in 1981 began in New York as a graffiti artist, where he called the streets home. His now infamous tag, SAMO, made the artist notorious amongst a new generation of artists, writers and musicians who represented an "anti-golden age" sentiment in a city suffering from a "white flight" migration to the suburbs. From the detritus and grime of the street emerged a new aesthetic that incorporated the harsh realities of a young and destitute population. Rejecting the newness and sheen of Pop Art based on a world of consumer goods and Hollywood superstars, Basquiat utilized found objects to make something new from items that had been discarded or left unwanted. In the present painting, Basquiat references this earlier form of his street-based work through his use of board and the construction of an almost shelf-like protrusion in the middle of the composition, giving the work a three dimensionality and realistic presence as an object in space.
It is in this vein that Basquiat oscillates between the streets and the gallery in the present composition that remains true to his graffiti roots in its simplified color palette and its stylistic impulsiveness. A proxy to the very industrial surface on which it could have been produced, Untitled possesses the urgency of the street combined with the primitive or childlike aesthetic of Jean Dubuffet. Similar to the art brut mentality, Basquiat strove 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 artists 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.
Known throughout his prolific albeit truncated career for his use of symbols, words, and other signifiers in which to encrypt his messages, Untitled, too, possess Basquiat's classic iconography. The halo's overt reference to innocence and martyrdom conjures images of death and sacrifice, and is a likely allusion to his reticence towards his overnight success as an artist. The haloed and disembodied head of the anonymous man floats ethereally in the upper half of the composition and is physically and thematically removed from the lower half, comprised of letters laid out in a grid-like structure. While the face has no specific resemblance to a notable figure, it could be construed as a portrait of the artist himself. Although many of Basquiat's subsequent works focused on African American heroes such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Cassius Clay, Miles Davis and a plethora of other sports stars, musicians and other prominent figures, the chosen anonymity of this figure is important as it becomes a signifier for the plight of the everyman. Speaking of Basquiat's distinctive figuration, Jean-Louis Prat said "these brutal images, these curious ghostly characters, these abrupt shapes that do not mean resemblance but which express divergence and discord blend in with anonymity a form of stereotype that almost seemed insurmountable because it spoke of our own similarities" (J.L. Prat, "The Child King of the Eighties," Jean-Michel Basquiat, ed. Géraldine Pfeffer-Lévy, Paris: Galerie Enrico Navarra, 2000, p 12).
While much of Basquiat's work integrated both graphic and textual details, the clear distinction Basquiat created between the upper, graphic, and lower, textual, sections, sets this work apart from his typical use of text in his work. The lower register is comprised of a chart of letters that possesses multiple meanings as they are rearranged and divided up differently. Even with the clearly discernible letters, the words possess an ambiguous quality, similar to the incongruous marking on a Cy Twombly canvas with their indiscernible, automatic, free verse sentiment. Seemingly writing without incentive or purpose, whether they say, "I ART OWN", "TAR TOWN" or even "I AR TOWN" the equivocal nature of the message speaks to Basquiat's understood position as prophet, as well as an allusion to his own personal feeling toward the art world and its stratified dealer, artist, patron relationships. In this piece there is a clear sense of Basquiat's hesitance or misgivings as he faces his complete transformation from outsider artist to privileged art world insider.
Basquiat's artistic career in 1981 began in New York as a graffiti artist, where he called the streets home. His now infamous tag, SAMO, made the artist notorious amongst a new generation of artists, writers and musicians who represented an "anti-golden age" sentiment in a city suffering from a "white flight" migration to the suburbs. From the detritus and grime of the street emerged a new aesthetic that incorporated the harsh realities of a young and destitute population. Rejecting the newness and sheen of Pop Art based on a world of consumer goods and Hollywood superstars, Basquiat utilized found objects to make something new from items that had been discarded or left unwanted. In the present painting, Basquiat references this earlier form of his street-based work through his use of board and the construction of an almost shelf-like protrusion in the middle of the composition, giving the work a three dimensionality and realistic presence as an object in space.
It is in this vein that Basquiat oscillates between the streets and the gallery in the present composition that remains true to his graffiti roots in its simplified color palette and its stylistic impulsiveness. A proxy to the very industrial surface on which it could have been produced, Untitled possesses the urgency of the street combined with the primitive or childlike aesthetic of Jean Dubuffet. Similar to the art brut mentality, Basquiat strove 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 artists 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.
Known throughout his prolific albeit truncated career for his use of symbols, words, and other signifiers in which to encrypt his messages, Untitled, too, possess Basquiat's classic iconography. The halo's overt reference to innocence and martyrdom conjures images of death and sacrifice, and is a likely allusion to his reticence towards his overnight success as an artist. The haloed and disembodied head of the anonymous man floats ethereally in the upper half of the composition and is physically and thematically removed from the lower half, comprised of letters laid out in a grid-like structure. While the face has no specific resemblance to a notable figure, it could be construed as a portrait of the artist himself. Although many of Basquiat's subsequent works focused on African American heroes such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Cassius Clay, Miles Davis and a plethora of other sports stars, musicians and other prominent figures, the chosen anonymity of this figure is important as it becomes a signifier for the plight of the everyman. Speaking of Basquiat's distinctive figuration, Jean-Louis Prat said "these brutal images, these curious ghostly characters, these abrupt shapes that do not mean resemblance but which express divergence and discord blend in with anonymity a form of stereotype that almost seemed insurmountable because it spoke of our own similarities" (J.L. Prat, "The Child King of the Eighties," Jean-Michel Basquiat, ed. Géraldine Pfeffer-Lévy, Paris: Galerie Enrico Navarra, 2000, p 12).
While much of Basquiat's work integrated both graphic and textual details, the clear distinction Basquiat created between the upper, graphic, and lower, textual, sections, sets this work apart from his typical use of text in his work. The lower register is comprised of a chart of letters that possesses multiple meanings as they are rearranged and divided up differently. Even with the clearly discernible letters, the words possess an ambiguous quality, similar to the incongruous marking on a Cy Twombly canvas with their indiscernible, automatic, free verse sentiment. Seemingly writing without incentive or purpose, whether they say, "I ART OWN", "TAR TOWN" or even "I AR TOWN" the equivocal nature of the message speaks to Basquiat's understood position as prophet, as well as an allusion to his own personal feeling toward the art world and its stratified dealer, artist, patron relationships. In this piece there is a clear sense of Basquiat's hesitance or misgivings as he faces his complete transformation from outsider artist to privileged art world insider.