“In Basquiat’s paintings, boys never become men, they become skeletons and skulls. Presence is expressed as absence - whether it’s in the spectral bodies and disembodied skulls he paints or the words he crosses out. Basquiat is obsessed with deconstructing the images and language of his fragmented world. His work is the ultimate expression of a profound sense of 'not there,' a deep hole in the soul” (Phoebe Hoban, Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art, New York 2016, n.p.).