Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Cabeza, from Portfolio II, is a striking and confrontational portrait that distills the artist’s raw visual language into a single, electrifying figure. Set against a saturated yellow ground, the image is dominated by a black, mask-like head rendered with urgent white, red, and blue line work. The face—wide-eyed, bared teeth exposed—projects intensity and psychological unease, confronting the viewer with an expression that oscillates between defiance and vulnerability.

Basquiat’s use of color heightens the emotional charge of the work. The acidic yellow background vibrates against the dense black figure, while sharp accents of red around the eyes and mouth suggest pain, alertness, or inner turmoil. The head appears elongated and anatomically exaggerated, with schematic markings and linear notations extending down the neck and torso, evoking X-ray imagery and Basquiat’s recurring interest in the body as both physical structure and symbolic site.

The word “AOPKHES” scrawled across the figure, along with ladder-like symbols and gestural marks, resists fixed interpretation, reinforcing Basquiat’s tendency to fracture language and destabilize meaning. These elements function less as readable text than as visual sound—rhythms and interruptions that mirror the intensity of the figure itself.

In Cabeza, Basquiat fuses the immediacy of graffiti with the authority of monumental portraiture. Translated into screen print, the image retains the urgency of the artist’s hand while amplifying its graphic power. The result is a commanding work that speaks to identity, perception, and psychological presence—an unmistakable expression of Basquiat’s ability to turn the human head into a charged symbol of consciousness and resistance. For more information or to buy