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Lot Essay
Conceived on the heels of Basquiat's three-year stint as SAMO during 1977-1980, this work extends the artist's earlier incarnation into the realm of fine art. Reading like non-sequiturs, the jarring abutments of symbols, cartoons and words that compete for attention in Untitled evoke the urban structures that bore the artist's previous spray-painted aphorisms suggesting, on a metaphorical level, the competing exigencies of modern life.
Basquiat's early work took its cue from cityscapes. Working on a raw and irregular sheet of black paper whose torn edges are particularly visible on the lower left in Untitled Basquiat brings to mind the asphalt-covered dilapidations of the inner city while simultaneously referring to the colour of its inhabitants. Thus 'TAR' - scrawled twice on the left - is both a literal invocation as well as a derogatory term flung at African Americans. Lashing out against the inveterate racism he witnessed, Basquiat described his art as '80 violence'. Considered in this light, the agitated scratches and visceral smears that adorn Untitled are not merely suggestive of the modern onslaught on urban edifices but also of the violent history that besets African Americans, its burden indelible as if tattooed into their beings.
Conceived at a turning point in Basquiat's career, Untitled is stocked with the private repertoire of symbols that would recur throughout his oeuvre. While the grid of broad white swaths on the upper right and the rudimentary outlines of single houses on the middle left further the idiom of a neighbourhood, the boxed-in skulls comment on the caged nature of life of black existence in the metropolis. These primitive mask-like heads would become a central motif in Basquiat's oeuvre, functioning as both re-appropriations of Modernism's borrowing of African art and as symbols of the marginalization of African Americans -'invisible men' - within a deeply divided racist culture. Signing his alter ego's initials - 'S' - within such enclosures, Basquiat stamped his empathy with such inequality, asserting his solidarity by making his art about black people for black people. Indeed, punctuating Untitled with yet another trademark - the three-pointed crown - Basquiat enriched these totemic visages and his surrogate self with 'the royalty of the streets' - a strategy that he would pursue in his subsequent works dedicated to famous African Americans. The crown comprised the artist's personal symbol of respect and admiration.
Basquiat's early work took its cue from cityscapes. Working on a raw and irregular sheet of black paper whose torn edges are particularly visible on the lower left in Untitled Basquiat brings to mind the asphalt-covered dilapidations of the inner city while simultaneously referring to the colour of its inhabitants. Thus 'TAR' - scrawled twice on the left - is both a literal invocation as well as a derogatory term flung at African Americans. Lashing out against the inveterate racism he witnessed, Basquiat described his art as '80 violence'. Considered in this light, the agitated scratches and visceral smears that adorn Untitled are not merely suggestive of the modern onslaught on urban edifices but also of the violent history that besets African Americans, its burden indelible as if tattooed into their beings.
Conceived at a turning point in Basquiat's career, Untitled is stocked with the private repertoire of symbols that would recur throughout his oeuvre. While the grid of broad white swaths on the upper right and the rudimentary outlines of single houses on the middle left further the idiom of a neighbourhood, the boxed-in skulls comment on the caged nature of life of black existence in the metropolis. These primitive mask-like heads would become a central motif in Basquiat's oeuvre, functioning as both re-appropriations of Modernism's borrowing of African art and as symbols of the marginalization of African Americans -'invisible men' - within a deeply divided racist culture. Signing his alter ego's initials - 'S' - within such enclosures, Basquiat stamped his empathy with such inequality, asserting his solidarity by making his art about black people for black people. Indeed, punctuating Untitled with yet another trademark - the three-pointed crown - Basquiat enriched these totemic visages and his surrogate self with 'the royalty of the streets' - a strategy that he would pursue in his subsequent works dedicated to famous African Americans. The crown comprised the artist's personal symbol of respect and admiration.