F resh to market, this large-scale Untitled (Anxious Men) (2015) showcases Rashid Johnson’s most iconic motif, the Anxious Man, a series that dominates his top auction results and stands as his most celebrated body of work. Executed in Johnson’s signature combination of black soap and wax on white ceramic tile, this piece embodies the artist’s mastery of materiality and psychological depth, distilling the raw, universal experience of modern anxiety. As Johnson himself observes, each work in this series is utterly unique: "They’re really like snowflakes...none of them are the same...born of the actual moment to which they’re made." This 2015 iteration, executed in the very year the Anxious man series was created, captures one such irreplicable moment. Its gestural marks and material imperfections frozen in t.mes as a test.mes nt to Johnson’s spontaneous creative process.

The series’ auction record was set at $2.7 million in November 2023, with three of Johnson’s top five prices achieved in the last two years alone, underscoring accelerating market demand. Here, Johnson’s abstract yet figurative forms invite viewers to project their own emotions, forging an intimate connection while layering personal and cultural narratives through symbolic materials like shea butter and black soap. The choice in material was a deliberate evocation of his Afrocentric upbringing and what he describes as the "Africanness" of his childhood home (Art in America, 2012).

Johnson’s current solo exhibition, A Poem for Deep Thinkers at the Guggenheim Museum (on view until January 2025), reinforces his status as a defining contemporary voice, amplifying the critical and investment appeal of the Anxious Men series. This 2015 work, created during the series’ formative years, channels the cathartic urgency of Jean Dubuffet’s art brut and the gestural force of Abstract Expressionism. Its poured wax and smeared soap surfaces is reminiscent of Chicago bathhouse tiles and bears the unmistakable imprint of Johnson’s hand, with every drip and crack preserving the energy of its creation.

This work arrives at a watershed moment. With pieces in the Whitney, MoMA, and Guggenheim, Johnson’s institutional legacy is secure even as his market reaches new heights. Untitled (Anxious Men) (2015) represents both a cultural touchstone and a strategic acquisition: it distills the emotional power of Johnson’s most sought-after works while benefiting from the series’ proven market performance. More than just a painting, it offers collects ors ownership of a singular artistic performance, one that, like all works in this series, can never be exactly repeated.