“Drawing, for [Basquiat], was something you did rather than something done, an activity rather than a medium. The seemingly throw-away sheets that carpeted his studio might appear little more than warm-ups for painting, except that the artist... kept the best for constant reference and re-use. Or, kept them because they were, quite simply, indestructibly vivid.”
Captivating in its electric immediacy, Untitled from 1982 is a brilliant representation of Basquiat’s most acclaimed motif, the iconic skull-like head. He rendered in a searing black oil stick and punctuated by a spiked and coiled crown, the legendary motif was not only employed by the artist as a talismanic symbol, but also as a representative of his very being; in this way, the bewitching head provides a raw look into the mind of one of the most brilliant artists of the Twentieth Century. Executed in 1982, Untitled dates to the very year that Basquiat’s meteoric ascension from unknown to icon began to unfold. Indeed, it was in 1982 that Basquiat had his first solo exhibitions with Annina Nosei in New York, Larry Gagosian in Los Angeles and Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich, establishing the young street artist formerly known as SAMO© as a key contributor to the bustling and competitive New York art scene. Exploding with gestural fervor and featuring a head more muscular than skeletal, Untitled embodies both the artist’s innate ability to distill angst into dynamism and his newfound maturity as a fierce draftsman.
Evincing an intense scrutiny and breathtaking intimacy, Basquiat’s works on paper comprise a fundamental element of his prolific oeuvre and are essential to a comprehensive understanding of the diverse signs, symbols, and subjects which make up his staggeringly inventive output. In Untitled, expressionistic strokes of black oil stick congregate against a white background to form a disembodied human head. Simultaneously appearing in frontal and three-quarters view, the head possesses a cubist-like multidimensionality. Small pupils peer out of widened eye sockets while the figure’s jaw structure is rendered doubly in black and peach, making it appear as though the face is perhaps peering through a mask. This multilayered depiction of sight has been regarded by scholars such as Fred Hoffmann as a way to bridge the physical and the psychological. Hoffmann notes:
“What drew Basquiat almost obsessively to the depiction of the human head was his fascination with the face as a passageway from exterior physical presence into the hidden realities of man’s psychological and mental realms…In the case of the eyes, they not only peer out as if seeing, but also invite the viewer to penetrate within.”
Numerous lines emerge from and surround the head in Untitled—a coiled, antenna-like marking ascends from the head’s right eye, while a large arrow floats beneath the face. The symbolic resonance of the present drawing cannot be overstated; coupled with the shamanistic skull and simultaneously connotative of centuries-old cave paintings and archery, the arrow has also long been used in cosmograms to signify direction and transformation. The sense of urgency and writhing energy that is present in Basquiat’s most compelling portraits is here conveyed primarily through the red and blue markings that comprise the forehead (which, along with the flat red nose and lips, give the head a muscular appearance), and through the wild scribbles that rhythmically unravel to the right. Shorter, more frantic and more colorful than the other marks in Untitled, these lines of red, blue, turquoise and teal are the vibrating pulse of the drawing. In the words of Robert Storr, “In drawings such as these - it is all still happening right before your eyes.” (Robert Storr, “Two Hundred Beats Per Min,” in: Exh. Cat., New York, Robert Miller Gallery, Basquiat Drawings, 1990, n.p.)
Capturing the expressive urgency of his street art escapades, Untitled also showcases Basquiat’s ability to strikingly at once depict the internal and the external. Brilliantly formulated in the artist’s intuitive and innovative psyche and then translated onto the paper surface, the sheer visual voltage of Untitled reveals the impassioned, almost compulsive intensity Basquiat brought to both his works on paper and to his larger practice. Far from inanimate, the charged lines achieve an intensely expressive power - Basquiat delivering a fusion of internal and external sensory experiences with the electrifying force of a live wire.
