Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Per Capita, from Portfolio I, is a forceful meditation on power, hierarchy, and collective value, articulated through the artist’s unmistakable fusion of text, symbol, and gesture. At the center of the composition sits a bold red field framed in rough strokes, emblazoned with Basquiat’s iconic crown rendered in electric blue—a symbol of authority, survival, and self-determination. Beneath it, the word “ASBESTOS” is scrawled in the same urgent blue, introducing a note of danger and toxicity that destabilizes the regal motif.

The surrounding white ground functions as an active field rather than negative space, populated with fragments of language, mythological references, and schematic drawings. Words such as “PER CAPITA” hover above the crown, while allusions to gods, underworld figures, and obscure notations accumulate around the margins. These scattered elements suggest systems of measurement, belief, and control—how power is counted, distributed, and mythologized across societies.

Basquiat’s use of contrast is deliberate. The saturated red and blue core reads as an emblem or warning sign, while the looser, sketch-like drawings at the edges recall marginalia, notes, and suppressed histories. The juxtaposition of the crown with “ASBESTOS” collapses ideas of wealth and prestige into contamination and risk, underscoring Basquiat’s skepticism toward structures that elevate some while quietly harming many.

In its screen-printed form, Per Capita amplifies the graphic clarity of these symbols without dulling their urgency. The work stands as a sharp commentary on economics, power, and collective consequence—an image that asserts Basquiat’s enduring ability to condense complex social critique into a language that is at once immediate, poetic, and unsettling. For more information or to buy