Four Big 1982

Jean-Michel Basquiat made "Four Big" in the 1980s, and it's like a visual shout, full of raw energy. You see how the paint is laid down? It's immediate, no fuss, like he's grabbing thoughts right out of the air and slapping them onto the canvas. The colors here are bold, almost jarring – that screaming yellow contrasting with the scratchy lines. It’s not about pretty blending; it's about making you feel something, a kind of urgency. Look at the way he layers images and words, a cross, a crown, cryptic symbols – it’s like a personal language we’re invited to decipher, but never quite can. That central yellow panel is a key. It feels like a playground of the artist's psyche. You can see echoes of Cy Twombly in this work, that sense of poetry emerging from the chaos of marks. Basquiat reminds us that art doesn't have to be neat or easily understood; it can be a wild, beautiful mess.