Mace - Jean-Michel Basquiat
Archival giclée
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Description
A raw, diagrammatic work by Jean-Michel Basquiat that catalogues medieval weaponry and battle injuries through text and gestural line-work.
Mace is a characteristic example of Jean-Michel Basquiat's practice of combining text, diagrammatic illustration, and historical reference. Executed in 1983, the work functions as a visual catalogue of medieval weaponry and combat injuries. Basquiat employs a raw, unrefined line quality that mimics the appearance of a textbook or a field guide, yet the content subverts this academic presentation through its stark, visceral subject matter.
The composition is divided into distinct sections, each labelled with precise, hand-written annotations. On the left, a central figure is depicted with various weapons, such as a mace, dagger, and wooden club, piercing the body. These are identified as common battle wounds. To the right, the artist includes a depiction of a quintain, a device used for jousting practice, alongside a narrative fragment describing the aftermath of a battle. The inclusion of the phrase, 'In battle lying dead he was stripped of his valuable armour and left naked on the ground', introduces a sense of vulnerability that contrasts with the clinical nature of the surrounding diagrams.
Basquiat's use of red lines across the page acts as a visual disruption, cutting through the orderly arrangement of the figures and text. This technique creates a tension between the structured information and the chaotic reality of the violence described. The work reflects the artist's interest in the intersection of history, power, and the human condition. By framing these scenes within the context of sports, opera, and weapons, Basquiat draws parallels between historical warfare and contemporary spectacle. The piece remains a direct, unfiltered examination of the mechanics of injury and the dehumanisation often associated with combat, presented through the artist's signature aesthetic of urgent, gestural mark-making.
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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
Mace - 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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