"The crown sits securely on the head of Jean-Michel's repertory so that it is of no importance where he got it bought it stole it; it's his. He won that crown."
Two figures clash in a thrilling boxing match in Untitled, a mature and confident declaration of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s unparalleled draftsmanship and instinctual storytelling abilities. Executed in 1987, just a year before the artist’s tragic death, the present work stands as a quality example of the increasingly complicated and frenzied late work by the artist. Scrawled across an impressively scaled sheet, Untitled is a masterful culmination of expressionistic fervor. Featuring two of Basquiat’s most iconic motifs namely, the boxer and the three-pointed crown, Untitled is not only an expression of the artist’s innovative visual language, it is indicative of some of Basquiat’s most impressive compositions.
Crudely delineated with a stark and prostrated fixity, the sparring warriors of the present work emerge with the intensity and bellicose energy of a contemporary boxer. Highly admired and sought-after, Basquiat’s depictions of boxers are his most personally and politically charged subjects. Through the figure of the Black boxer, Basquiat found an emblem of self-made power and a modern hero who triumphed against systemic racial prejudices. Deeply informed about these athletes' lives, he admired their challenges to societal injustices, with figures like Joe Louis promoting racial integration in sports, while Cassius Clay became a symbol of social protest during Basquiat's formative years. Basquiat often canonized these black heroes in his works, depicting crowns or haloes circling their heads, as demonstrated by the emblematic three-pointed crown hovering above the right figure’s head in the present work.
Different from his paintings, the frenetic energy of Basquiat’s works on paper are unique in their raw immediacy that pave the way for his creative genius to shine through in an unaltered fashion. A self-taught artist, Basquiat’s genius lay in his instinctive understanding of composition and unique iconographic lexicon, and the immediacy of paper as a medium provided the perfect vehicle for Basquiat’s innate brilliance. It is easy to see the appeal of working on paper for Basquiat as there is little possibility of correction through overpainting. As a result, works on paper, including the present example, stand as tangible records of the artist’s otherworldly way of thinking and in turn his limitless creative potential.
Untitled is a direct and emblematic work that distills the essence of Basquiat’s oeuvre. In its powerful command of form and subject, we understand the sheer impact of the artist’s depictive force. In the words of curator Diego Cortez, “[Basquiat] constructs an intensity of line which reads like a polygraph report, a brain-to-hand ‘shake’. The figure is electronic-primitive-comic” (Diego Cortez cited in: Richard D. Marshall and Jean-Louis Prat, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Vol. II, Paris 1996, p. 160).
