Untitled (Chinese Man, Orange)

This painting was made by Basquiat in response to a Chinese boy who had visited him and asked to participate in a painting session. The boy was encouraged to write his name and his repeated efforts to spell it correctly are collaged in the center of the canvas. Basquiat often used collage within paintings, usually his own poems or words written on sheets of paper and color-xeroxed. Here, the found element in the painting converts the writer's lack of success with an unfamiliar script to the centerpiece of the work: it becomes the sign that both names and animates the canvas. The naming of the boy is framed within a house structure which is painted in the hot colors of his environment and surrounded by the symbols of his power within the community.