Elaine 1985

Jean-Michel Basquiat made this arresting portrait on paper collaged onto canvas, with paint, oil stick, and paper. Imagine him, maybe music blasting in the studio, layering and reworking, letting this face emerge, like a vision taking shape. There's so much to unpack in this face: those stark white lines slicing across, the eyes like saucers, and that grin—or is it a grimace? The paint is laid on thick, urgent, like he's trying to capture something fleeting. You can almost feel the energy of his hand as he worked, each stroke a thought, a feeling, a raw nerve exposed. Basquiat was in conversation with the whole history of art, but he was also doing his own thing, pushing boundaries, making something new and wild and totally his own. That's the beauty of painting; it's a conversation that never ends. Artists build on what came before, remixing and reinventing, adding their own voice to the mix.