Pre-Agrav 1984

Jean-Michel Basquiat made "Pre-Agrav" with paint, and you can see how he was unafraid to let the process show. There's a real physicality to this piece, right? The red background feels like a shout, and then that figure, almost like a mask, is built up from thick strokes of brown, black, and red. Look at the teeth – they're not pretty, perfect rows; they're like a wild, expressive burst of energy. And those bright yellow lines zigzagging around the face? They feel raw and immediate, like the artist was thinking out loud with his brush. Basquiat always reminds me of Cy Twombly, actually, in the way they both used mark-making as a kind of language. But where Twombly is all airy and classical, Basquiat is pure street energy. With Basquiat, ambiguity isn't a problem; it's the whole point.