Jean-Michel Basquiat: Urban Expression and Raw Identity

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) was an American artist known for his expressive paintings, drawings, and mixed-media works that emerged from the New York downtown scene of the late 1970s and 1980s.

Originally gaining attention through street-based graffiti under the name SAMO, he developed a studio practice characterized by raw imagery, fragmented text, and layered symbolic references. His works combine drawing, painting, and collage, often incorporating words, diagrams, and cultural iconography drawn from history, music, media, and everyday urban life.

Basquiat’s practice engages with themes such as identity, power structures, racial history, and cultural production, reflecting the social and political tensions of his environment. His visual language is marked by intensity and immediacy, blending spontaneity with complex systems of reference that continue to influence contemporary art discourse.

Profit I

Jean Michel Basquiat, 1982

93¾ × 53½ in (229 × 134 cm), acrylic & spray paint on canvas.

Sold in 2002 for $5.5 million by drummer Lars Ulrich of heavy metal band Metallica.

KEY WORKS:Untitled (Skull), 1981 (Santa Monica: Broad Art Foundation);Saint, 1982 (Zurich: Galerie Bruno Bischofberger)