Vibrantly and densely-layered, Untitled (1980-1985) is a masterful example of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s instinctive and lauded abilities as one of the greatest draughtsman of the Twentieth Century. Typical of his works on paper, the frenetic urgency of the mark-making, the unique variance in color, and the iconic motif of the central head are all effortlessly combined into a singularly sizzling composition that exemplifies Basquiat’s effortless creative genius. Intricately impastoed layers of oilstick in black and red are scrawled upon the surface of Untitled, culminating in a stream of consciousness made visual.

The subject of Untitled is constructed of variegated geometrics passages, simple shapes and lines and arcs which coalesce to become both anatomical and schematic. While recovering from a car accident as a youth, Basquiat was given a copy of Gray’s Anatomy by his mother, and the formative text would prove to be influential on his later practice. In Untitled, the subject is depicted as if through an X-ray, their spinal cord visible through their broad exterior, bespeaking this early influence.

A complex labyrinth of symbols and images vibrate above the work’s figure, who is crowned by a halo of thorns. The layered symbols not only expose his process of creation, but are reflective of the ever-evolving world of tags and graffiti that dominated Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan at the t.mes . Emulated in this work, "Hobo Signs" – scrawls and symbols left on buildings and fences by people as a way of communicating with one another - maintained a formative role in the artist's painted language.

The present work evidences the artist’s astute observation of psycho-spiritual states of being: “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…the individualized expression and articulated emotive content evidence Basquiat’s fascination with our psychological as well as spiritual disposition.” (Fred Hoffmann, Exh. Cat., New York, Acquavella Galleries, Jean-Michel Basquiat Drawing: Works from the Schorr Family collects ion, p. 74)

The explosive mark-making and scrawls across the surface of Untitled are fueled by the fierce artistic drive which propelled Basquiat’s meteoric rise to unprecedented success. Executed in the early 1980s, the present work was initiated shortly after Basquiat had his first solo exhibitions with Larry Gagosian in Los Angeles, Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich, as well as galleries in New York and Rotterdam. Untitled is replete of Basquiat’s fully matured aesthetic vocabulary with the signature motif of the head, a variation of the iconic crown, and the densely worked surface of oilstick incisions that create positively and negatively worked dimensions. The searing stokes in the present work epitomize the unbridled talent of Basquiat and his confidence within the medium of drawing, in which he flawlessly illustrated without editing: “With the exception of Picasso, few acclaimed painters of the Twentieth Century invested the same t.mes or energy to works on paper that is evidence in their painting. The search for pictorial solutions would have been fought out in front of the canvas. Yes, Twentieth Century painters drew and made masterful works in this medium, but drawing was always a secondary concern. For Basquiat, in contrast, there is often less of a distinction, in terms of intent, between working on paper and on canvas.” (Ibid., p. 33)

Untitled is not only an exquisite creation by a master draughtsman, it is an explicit reference to Basquiat’s idiom of the warrior figure that embodies the young artist’s fierce ascent to the heights of critical and commercial acclaim. From being born to Puerto Rican and Haitian parents and raised in Brooklyn, to international renown and public admiration for Basquiat’s undeniable talent and unique visual vocabulary, Untitled is at its essence, the artist fighting to overcome all odds to forge a meta-narrative of a successful black painter in Western art history.