Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 50 Cent Piece is a sprawling, encyclopedic composition that captures the artist at his most intellectually expansive. Dense with handwritten text, schematic diagrams, historical references, and fragmented portraiture, the work functions like a visual palimpsest—layering economics, Black history, colonialism, science, and spirituality into a single, restless field.

At the core of the composition are references to currency and value—most explicitly through the invocation of money and banking—set against repeated allusions to Jamaica, Haiti, Africa, and the Atlantic world. Portrait fragments, including references to Marcus Garvey, operate as anchors within the visual chaos, situating Black leadership, migration, and self-determination within a global economic and political framework. These figures are surrounded by anatomical notes, industrial terms, biblical symbolism (the Ark), and institutional language, reinforcing Basquiat’s recurring critique of how Black bodies and histories are measured, categorized, and exploited.

Visually, the print is propelled by Basquiat’s signature combination of urgent line work, aggressive crossings-out, uneven color blocks, and scrawled typography. Blues, yellows, browns, and blacks punctuate the surface, guiding the eye through competing zones of meaning. The act of crossing out text does not erase meaning but intensifies it, a hallmark of Basquiat’s belief that visibility and erasure are intertwined within systems of power.

Translated into the screen print medium, 50 Cent Piece retains the raw immediacy of Basquiat’s drawing while amplifying its graphic impact at scale. The edition format preserves the improvisational energy of the original work, allowing its layered narratives to remain open-ended and confrontational.

Ultimately, 50 Cent Piece stands as a forceful meditation on value—economic, cultural, and human—revealing Basquiat’s ability to fuse personal identity with global history. It is a work that embodies his unique capacity to turn language, image, and symbolism into a sharp critique of power and inequality, while remaining visually electric and uncompromising. For more information on