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Untitled

1985
Not on view
Basquiat, who grew up in Brooklyn the child of Puerto Rican and Haitian parents, rose to fame in the early 1980s as part of the street graffiti scene of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Known first by the tag name SAMO ("SAMe Old shit"), Basquiat was a skilled painter whose large-scale works and drawings combined clever wordplay in English, French, and Spanish with a panoply of signature images in bright colors. Here, in his characteristic all-caps hand, the artist inscribed stream-of-consciousness spills of words on slips of notepaper, assembling them with delicate drawings of animal skeletons.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Untitled
  • Artist: Jean-Michel Basquiat (American, Brooklyn, New York 1960–1988 New York)
  • Date: 1985
  • Medium: Graphite, colored pencils, oilstick, acrylic, torn and pasted papers on paper
  • Dimensions: 29 1/4 x 42 in. (74.3 x 106.7 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Gift of the Estate of the artist, 1992
  • Object Number: 1992.368.1
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2022 The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat / All rights reserved. Used by permission
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

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Untitled, Jean-Michel Basquiat American, Graphite, colored pencils, and watercolor on paper
Untitled
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1986
Untitled, Jean-Michel Basquiat American, Acrylic, oil and oil stick on wood panel
Untitled
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1981
Jughead, Jean-Michel Basquiat American, Acrylic, wax crayon, pencil on canvas
Jughead
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1987
Piscine Versus the Best Hotels (or Various Loin), Jean-Michel Basquiat American, Acrylic, oil paint stick, photocopies, and painted paper on paper and multiple canvas panels
Returned to lender
Piscine Versus the Best Hotels (or Various Loin)
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1982
Kings of Egypt II, Jean-Michel Basquiat American, Oil on canvas
Returned to lender
Kings of Egypt II
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1982

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