Leeches - Jean-Michel Basquiat
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Description
A 1983 Neo-Expressionist work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, featuring a dense arrangement of anatomical diagrams, social critique, and raw, graffiti-inspired text.
Jean-Michel Basquiat produced Leeches in 1983, a period during which his work frequently incorporated anatomical diagrams, textual fragments, and social commentary. The composition functions as a dense field of information, where the artist combines medical imagery with references to literature and urban decay. A central, cross-sectioned head dominates the visual space, rendered in warm tones that contrast with the surrounding scribbled blue lines and aggressive black paint blocks.
Basquiat employs a non-linear narrative structure, scattering words such as 'catharsis', 'parasites', and 'boric acid' across the surface. These terms, alongside the repeated mention of 'leeches', suggest a preoccupation with themes of exploitation and biological or social infestation. The inclusion of phrases like 'power + money (value) without nobility' provides a direct critique of societal structures, a recurring subject in his oeuvre. The artist uses a combination of oilstick and acrylic, creating a texture that mimics the immediacy of graffiti found in the New York City environment of the early 1980s.
The work displays a deliberate rejection of traditional perspective. Instead, Basquiat organises the canvas through a series of interconnected symbols and diagrams, such as the 'diagram of the heart' and the 'detail of the adult flea'. By layering these disparate elements, he creates a visual rhythm that forces the viewer to navigate the canvas as one would a page of notes or a wall of urban markings. The heavy black erasures, which obscure parts of the text, serve as a physical record of the artist's process, indicating a constant state of revision and reaction. This piece captures the raw, urgent energy that defined Basquiat's approach to painting, where the distinction between high art and street-level observation is intentionally blurred.
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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
Leeches - 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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