Jean-Michel Basquiat

Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
Sale: Sotheby's, London, Contemporary Art, 25 March 1999, Lot 17
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the paper tone is warmer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. The sheet is attached to a backing board in several places on the reverse. The vertical edgesare slightly deckled and there is light undulation to the sheet. There is light wear to the horizontal edges and all other surface irregularites are inherent to the artist's working process.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Executed when Jean-Michel Basquiat was only twenty-three years old, Untitled 1983 exemplifies the artist’s humorous and incisive embrace of urban visual culture. Dominating the picture plane, Basquiat’s signature robot figure is surrounded by visual signs that metaphorically allude to the competing pressures of modern life and its evolution towards a technologically-enhanced future. Recalling the disparate arrangement of prehistoric drawings on cave walls, the repeated motif of the drawn and scribbled “TEETH” and the reference to “IN FORTY B.C. AN IMPOSTER” convey Basquiat’s career-defining fixation on the human body as subject, and obsession with erudite historical references. Echoing both the primitive scribbles of a child and the elaborate iconographies of street art, what appears in media res like a chaotic topography is in fact a methodological trait that Basquiat expanded in later works such as the masterful Pegasus from 1987.

The present work was realised at the height of the artist’s career, as the young genius was achieving his artistic maturity and harnessing the true potential of his talents. 1983 was indeed a pivotal year for Basquiat, who had his first solo exhibitions with Larry Gagosian in Los Angeles, Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich and other galleries in New York and Rotterdam. Untitled illustrates the artist’s prowess in using his vast visual knowledge to create a fresh and unique iconography. Although informed by a spectrum of art historical and cultural sources ─ both modern and ancient─, the drawing is unrestrained by aesthetic conventions and captures the essence of Basquiat’s inimitable style.

Fused with the graffiti vocabulary which first brought him to the attention of the Manhattan art establishment, the symbolism of the robot can be read as a highly original form of his endless concern for the human figure. Arousing a reflection on the power of technological progress to influence our human nature, the humorously articulated man-machine, ‘see through’ thanks to the x-ray, allows reading Untitled as an extremely bold self-portrait. On the occasion of Leo Castelli’s birthday, in a performance by ‘Gray’, the music band in which Basquiat was a member, the latter had indeed disguised himself as a robot-machine. Another fragment of Basquiat’s landscape of autobiography, Untitled is a portal into the latter’s coded criticism of the grandly isolated human form. Its gathering of conceptual and polemical energies makes the work as challenging today as it was in 1983.