Untitled. Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982.

Untitled conveys Jean-Michel Basquiat’s possession of an encyclopaedic intellect and prodigious ability to communicate a highly evocative yet masterfully succinct visual code. Fascinated by his own cultural heritage, his father of Haitian descent, this painting speaks to the legacy of white colonisation and black servitude. Bearing the emblematical three-pointed crown bracketed by, in large capital letters, ‘LOANS’ and ‘HAITI’, this work delivers a rumination on the struggles endured along the quest for autonomy….

“Catalogue Note: Untitled. Jean Michel Basquiat, 1982.” Sotheby’s (October 2012)