Ascent - Jean-Michel Basquiat
Archival giclée
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Description
A 1983 work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, featuring his signature blend of gestural mark-making, cryptic text, and layered cultural iconography.
Ascent (1983) is a characteristic example of Jean-Michel Basquiat's practice, where he synthesises disparate cultural references, personal iconography, and raw, gestural mark-making. The composition is dominated by fields of cobalt blue, which act as a ground for a dense accumulation of text, symbols, and figures. Basquiat employs a non-linear approach to narrative, layering references to classical philosophy, religious figures, and popular culture.
One observes the recurring motif of the 'flesh spirit', alongside textual citations such as 'John the Revelator' and 'Plotinus'. These elements are not arranged in a traditional hierarchy; instead, they occupy the pictorial space with a sense of urgency. The inclusion of specific terms like 'Pole Star' and 'Baboon' suggests a private lexicon, one that invites the viewer to decode the connections between the disparate subjects. The artist's use of oilstick creates a tactile, immediate quality, contrasting with the flatter, broader applications of acrylic paint.
Basquiat's work often functions as a visual archive of his intellectual interests, ranging from historical figures to contemporary comic-book aesthetics. In this piece, the repetition of the word 'Ascent' provides a thematic anchor, though its meaning remains fluid within the chaotic arrangement of the surrounding imagery. The work avoids a singular focus, encouraging the eye to traverse the surface and engage with the various fragments of information. By integrating these diverse sources, Basquiat creates a visual dialogue that reflects the fragmented nature of information and cultural memory. The work remains a primary example of his ability to merge the energy of street-based graffiti with the formal concerns of fine art painting, resulting in a composition that is both aggressive and carefully considered in its spatial distribution.
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Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Ascent - Jean-Michel Basquiat
Artist Biography
Jean Michel Basquiat
He had no formal art training. He dropped out of school at seventeen and slept on park benches and friends' floors. He sold hand-painted postcards and t-shirts. He gate-crashed a restaurant where the critic Henry Geldzahler was eating with Andy Warhol and handed them a postcard. Warhol bought one. The art world opened.
By twenty-one he was showing in galleries. By twenty-two he was the youngest artist ever invited to Documenta in Kassel. The paintings are dense, layered, furious: text fragments, anatomical drawings, crown symbols, crossed-out words, references to Black history, jazz, boxing, anatomy textbooks, and street signage. They look unplanned but they are not. The crossed-out words are deliberate. He wanted you to read them, then register the erasure.
He and Warhol collaborated on a series of paintings in 1984 and 1985. The relationship was complicated by the art market's tendency to treat Basquiat as Warhol's protege rather than his peer, and by the fact that Warhol, older and more established, got better reviews for the joint work. Basquiat pulled away.
He died of a heroin overdose in 1988, at twenty-seven. His paintings now sell for over 100 million dollars. He would have found that both satisfying and absurd.
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