Untitled (Plaid) - Jean-Michel Basquiat
Archival giclée
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Description
A powerful example of Basquiat's text-based work, featuring repetitive motifs and sharp social commentary rendered in his signature raw, expressive style.
This work by Jean-Michel Basquiat displays his characteristic approach to combining text, social commentary, and raw mark-making. The composition is dominated by the repetitive word 'PLAID', which is crossed out in several places, creating a visual rhythm that disrupts the legibility of the text. Basquiat uses this repetition to explore themes of consumerism, cultural identity, and historical narratives.
Interspersed among the repeated words are handwritten phrases that offer biting observations on American history and social structures. References to 'Western diet', 'train tracks', and 'men of China' point toward the artist's interest in the exploitation of labour and the construction of national myths. The inclusion of symbols, such as a ladder and a circled price mark, functions as a shorthand for the artist's critique of economic systems. The surface of the work retains a sense of immediacy, with lines that appear spontaneous yet carefully placed to guide the viewer across the canvas.
Basquiat's practice often involved the layering of information, where text acts as both a visual element and a carrier of meaning. By deconstructing language and reassembling it within a chaotic, graffiti-influenced framework, he forces a confrontation with the uncomfortable realities of history. The stark contrast between the black oilstick markings and the off-white ground ensures that the focus remains on the textual content and the aggressive energy of the strokes. This piece captures the urgency of his output during the early 1980s, a period when he was actively engaging with the intersections of art, politics, and urban life.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
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- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
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- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
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Materials & Sizing
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
Untitled (Plaid) - 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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