Onion Gum 1983

Jean-Michel Basquiat made *Onion Gum* using oil stick on a found canvas, a common practice for him. The bright yellow and crude drawing style immediately grab your attention, but it’s worth taking a closer look at the text and imagery. The title itself, "Onion Gum," is intriguing and absurd. Basquiat often incorporated text into his paintings, layering words and phrases like ingredients that act as both concrete information and abstract sound. The combination of commercial and organic phrases such as ‘Made in Japan’, ‘Enriched Flour’, ‘Snake Serpent’, and ‘Harmless’, points to mass production and cultural appropriation. The raw, almost primal quality of Basquiat's line work adds to this sense of immediacy and urgency, a way to elevate everyday materials into a powerful social critique. By incorporating elements of mass production and consumer culture, Basquiat blurs the boundaries between "high" art and the everyday objects that surround us. He invites us to reconsider the value we place on both, and to recognize the inherent creativity and social meaning embedded in the world around us.