God, Law - Jean-Michel Basquiat
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Description
A raw, graphic work by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1981, exploring the intersection of morality, law, and capital through stark text and symbolic imagery.
Jean-Michel Basquiat produced this work in 1981, a period when his transition from street-based graffiti to the gallery environment was fully underway. The composition features a set of scales, a traditional symbol of justice, positioned above two distinct boxes containing the words GOD and LAW. Between these two concepts, Basquiat places a dollar sign, suggesting a critique of the intersection between morality, legal systems, and capital.
The aesthetic relies on a raw, immediate application of oilstick. The lines are deliberately unrefined, echoing the urgency of his earlier work under the tag SAMO. The background is marked by splatters and stains, which provide a sense of physical decay or urban grit. This texture contrasts with the stark, legible lettering of the text elements. By isolating these words within boxes, Basquiat forces a direct confrontation between the viewer and the concepts presented.
Basquiat often utilised text as a visual element rather than merely a linguistic one. The placement of the dollar sign at the centre of the scales implies that financial influence tips the balance of justice. The work avoids complex shading or perspective, favouring a flat, graphic quality that draws from both comic books and primitive art. This approach allows the message to remain clear while maintaining the energetic, chaotic surface typical of his output during the early 1980s. The work functions as a visual shorthand for the societal tensions Basquiat observed in New York City, where institutional power and economic disparity were constant themes in his practice.
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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 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
God, Law - 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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