At the dawn of the 1980s, Jean-Michel Basquiat went from being a graffiti artist, whose work was confined largely to the New York streets, to a studio-based one, when he was offered a space by the gallerist Annina Nosei. Soon he was conjuring up canvas-based paintings, as well as drawings and collages, that boasted the same urgent vitality of his street art—and which have gone on to become his most coveted works (from 1983 onwards, he was consumed by a serious heroin addiction). Much of Basquiat’s art centres on a “singular heroic figure”, to quote curator Kellie Jones, and this untitled painting features one such wildly gesturing protagonist, loosely rendered in acrylic, oilstick and spray paint. It embodies the artist’s unique pictorial style, which drew on everything from comic books to ancient pictographs, and features in a new show, Baselitz/Basquiat, 1981–1982, opening at Skarstedt Gallery New York, today.
