Anatomy, View Of Base Of Skull
Anatomy, View Of Base Of Skull
Signed Print
Jean-Michel Basquiat
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77 x 56cm, Edition of 18, Screenprint
Medium: Screenprint
Edition size: 18
Year: 1982
Size: H 77cm x W 56cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
Last Auction: December 2007
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Meaning & Analysis
As one of the Anatomy prints, View Of Base Of Skull was produced in 1983, a blockbuster year for the artist, which saw him participate in the landmark group exhibition entitled ‘Champions’ at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery alongside a number of his contemporaries including Keith Haring and Brett De Palma.
The anatomical sketch is concentrated in the bottom half of the image in View Of Base Of Skull. The base of the skull is drawn in Basquiat’s signature scrawl, and labelled liberally, indicating the medical names of body parts including the malar bone, the foramen magnum and the temporal bone. The specificity of the annotations exists in tension with the spidery, almost-indecipherable handwriting.
This compulsion to annotate his anatomical sketches to such an extent can be read as Basquiat’s attempt to explain its complicated modes of functioning. Having been severely injured in a vehicle accident as a youngster, and having to have significant surgery to resolve his injuries, he was fully conscious of the limits of the vulnerable human form.
Jean-Michel Basquiat's unique visual style has dominated the Urban Art scene, securing his status as one of the most successful African-American street artists of the 20th Century. Addressing themes of race, identity and culture within his expressive works, his distinctive painterly style and use of child-like iconography changed the course of art history forever. Artworks such as Undiscovered Genius place controversial subjects at the forefront of his narrative. Despite his tragically premature death at the age of 27, Basquiat's impact on the art scene is exemplified through the increase of his market value in the years since.
