Logo 1984

This is a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, made with acrylic and oil stick. See how the red ground is applied sketchily, almost as a wash, while the imagery on top seems to be drawn on with a crayon or marker? It’s all process. The painting's got this crazy mix of free-associative symbols and words, colliding and overlapping like thoughts in your head. Then, the physicality of Basquiat’s line, that urgent, scribbled quality, it’s like he’s wrestling with the canvas, trying to get something out, something urgent. Look how he combines this with areas of flat color, like the blue behind "Trade Mark". The thing that strikes me most is this juxtaposition of raw energy and graphic directness. I think about Cy Twombly, another artist who loved to scribble and scrawl. Basquiat is totally his own thing, but like Twombly, he’s showing us that art isn’t about perfection or answers. It’s about the mess, the questions, and the beauty that can be found in between.