Lot Essay
In Greg Tate's essay titled "Black Like B.," he stated: "Talking about Basquiat is also talking about my generation. Born into a world of monster movies and science fiction, comic books and cultural nationalism, parliament-funkadelic, hip-hop and punk rock. And if you're a young black person you're constantly trying to square the futurism of America with the barbarism of the place. So we live in a multiplicity of imaginative realms, the world of . . . savage Africa and Africa as paradise lost" (R. Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York, 1992, pp. 56-57).
Self-Portrait as a Heel, Part Two juxtaposes these concepts of mass culture and African preconceptions with a sophisticated understanding of modern art. The word "heel" in the title could be interpreted as either a contemptible person or as a misspelling of the word "heal," as in the verb "to cure." The dark silhouette viewed from behind ("backview") alludes to cinematic shadows of sinister characters that lurk in the darkness, his raised hand is caught mid-action just before committing an unknown crime. The intense face that confronts the viewer at the upper right, however, is reminiscent of a medicine man or a shamanistic African mask that could have been used in a tribal healing ritual to ward off evil spirits; the two translucent hands are in scale with this mask and can be associated with its rehabilitating powers. As both heads have the wild hair of Basquiat, this double self-portrait utilizes racial stereotypes of the black man as criminal, savage or superstitious to create a "composite" of the negative and positive forces within the artist himself. Indeed, he has said of the time when this work was done, "I had some money . . . I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people" (C. McGuigan, "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist," The New York Times Magazine, 10 February 1985, p. 74). The painting thus may have served as a way for the artist spiritually to cleanse himself. Ironically, however, Basquiat recognized that this is also a time that he "made the best paintings ever"; and the hands repeated throughout the composition confirm the active strength of their creative power.
Self-Portrait as a Heel, Part Two juxtaposes these concepts of mass culture and African preconceptions with a sophisticated understanding of modern art. The word "heel" in the title could be interpreted as either a contemptible person or as a misspelling of the word "heal," as in the verb "to cure." The dark silhouette viewed from behind ("backview") alludes to cinematic shadows of sinister characters that lurk in the darkness, his raised hand is caught mid-action just before committing an unknown crime. The intense face that confronts the viewer at the upper right, however, is reminiscent of a medicine man or a shamanistic African mask that could have been used in a tribal healing ritual to ward off evil spirits; the two translucent hands are in scale with this mask and can be associated with its rehabilitating powers. As both heads have the wild hair of Basquiat, this double self-portrait utilizes racial stereotypes of the black man as criminal, savage or superstitious to create a "composite" of the negative and positive forces within the artist himself. Indeed, he has said of the time when this work was done, "I had some money . . . I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people" (C. McGuigan, "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist," The New York Times Magazine, 10 February 1985, p. 74). The painting thus may have served as a way for the artist spiritually to cleanse himself. Ironically, however, Basquiat recognized that this is also a time that he "made the best paintings ever"; and the hands repeated throughout the composition confirm the active strength of their creative power.