Jean-Michel Basquiat’s dramatic life and iconic paintings—which variously feature obsessive scribbling, enigmatic symbols and diagrams, and iconography including skulls, masks, and the artist’s trademark crown—make him one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. The self-taught painter embraced graffiti before committing to a studio practice. He found a mentor and friend in Andy Warhol, who helped the young artist navigate the 1980s New York art world. Across his oeuvre, Basquiat drew on his own Caribbean heritage; a convergence of African American, African, and Aztec cultural histories; classical themes; and pop cultural figures including athletes and musicians. The immediacy and intellectual depth of his paintings won him widespread acclaim both before and after his untimely death at the age of 27. Basquiat’s paintings now belong in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. In 2017, Basquiat’s Untitled (1982) notched $110.5 million at auction and became the most expensive artwork by an American artist to ever be sold. What you may not know is that Basquiat long held a fascination with and admiration for superheroes.
In a 1983 interview with Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, art critic Henry Geldzahler inquired about Basquiat's early drawing subjects. Basquiat's response was unexpectedly candid: "As a kid, I was a really terrible artist. Too much like an abstract expressionist...very messy. I never won any painting contests. I remember being beaten by someone who did a flawless Spider-Man." As a young child Basquiat had aspired to be a cartoonist and incorporated cartoon-like figures in some of his early drawings. The mature works in this portfolio are prime examples of this influence, also containing several archetypal Basquiat stylistic concepts: the organization of seemingly disparate ideas, the sequencing of images, concepts and texts, deep interest in art and popular culture, and the creation of slogans, repeated and crossed out text and enigmatic references to strength and power.
Basquiat’s appreciation for comic books heavily influenced a remarkable body of his work, with him as a child often scribbling cartoon characters on his fathers accounting paper. Throughout his childhood he struggled with creating perfectly anatomical drawings. He instead based himself in abstract impressionism. He found that conventional art often outperformed him in younger competitions, his artwork was seen to have too much of an “ugly edge”. Yet it was this witty edge and ugliness that projected him to fame, making his art style so distinctive that it is now one of the most recognisable on the market.
When questioned about his satisfaction with his art during childhood, Basquiat admitted, "No, not at all. I always wanted to be the top artist in my class, but my work always came out looking quite rough." It's possible that this ambition drove him to produce works like the Superhero Portfolio. This collection contains a sense of nostalgia across four screenprints: Riddle Me This, A Panel of Experts, Piano Lesson, and Flash In Naples.
Basquiat, while renting his studio from Andy Warhol, completed his series of Superheroes towards the end of his sadly short life - making it possible that Warhol had some kind of influence on the Superhero works. Basquiat’s huge body of work during his short and fraught lifetime are still some of the most popular pieces of contemporary art on the market. For example, the original Flash In Naples smashed its estimated auction record of $14-18 million, hammering down at $19.8 million. Each piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat is akin to a riddle, and the Superhero Portfolio is no different. Within these four artworks, one can find allusions to Saturday morning cartoons, corn puffs, the bat symbol, a cartoonish depiction of alcohol marked with "XXX,” and a super hero-like figure accompanied by the word “KRAK” (in classic comic book onomatopoeic style). And that's just the beginning—there are always more symbols and connections to uncover, such as why the Riddler is depicted standing on a snake.
The Superhero Portfolio, comprising Riddle Me This, A Panel of Experts, Piano Lesson, and Flash In Naples (1982-87/2022), is a collection of four screen prints posthumously published by Pace Prints. Limited to an edition of 85, each piece is stamped and signed by Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, the artist's sisters and executors of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
In a 1983 interview with Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, art critic Henry Geldzahler inquired about Basquiat's early drawing subjects. Basquiat's response was unexpectedly candid: "As a kid, I was a really terrible artist. Too much like an abstract expressionist...very messy. I never won any painting contests. I remember being beaten by someone who did a flawless Spider-Man." As a young child Basquiat had aspired to be a cartoonist and incorporated cartoon-like figures in some of his early drawings. The mature works in this portfolio are prime examples of this influence, also containing several archetypal Basquiat stylistic concepts: the organization of seemingly disparate ideas, the sequencing of images, concepts and texts, deep interest in art and popular culture, and the creation of slogans, repeated and crossed out text and enigmatic references to strength and power.
Basquiat’s appreciation for comic books heavily influenced a remarkable body of his work, with him as a child often scribbling cartoon characters on his fathers accounting paper. Throughout his childhood he struggled with creating perfectly anatomical drawings. He instead based himself in abstract impressionism. He found that conventional art often outperformed him in younger competitions, his artwork was seen to have too much of an “ugly edge”. Yet it was this witty edge and ugliness that projected him to fame, making his art style so distinctive that it is now one of the most recognisable on the market.
When questioned about his satisfaction with his art during childhood, Basquiat admitted, "No, not at all. I always wanted to be the top artist in my class, but my work always came out looking quite rough." It's possible that this ambition drove him to produce works like the Superhero Portfolio. This collection contains a sense of nostalgia across four screenprints: Riddle Me This, A Panel of Experts, Piano Lesson, and Flash In Naples.
Basquiat, while renting his studio from Andy Warhol, completed his series of Superheroes towards the end of his sadly short life - making it possible that Warhol had some kind of influence on the Superhero works. Basquiat’s huge body of work during his short and fraught lifetime are still some of the most popular pieces of contemporary art on the market. For example, the original Flash In Naples smashed its estimated auction record of $14-18 million, hammering down at $19.8 million. Each piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat is akin to a riddle, and the Superhero Portfolio is no different. Within these four artworks, one can find allusions to Saturday morning cartoons, corn puffs, the bat symbol, a cartoonish depiction of alcohol marked with "XXX,” and a super hero-like figure accompanied by the word “KRAK” (in classic comic book onomatopoeic style). And that's just the beginning—there are always more symbols and connections to uncover, such as why the Riddler is depicted standing on a snake.
The Superhero Portfolio, comprising Riddle Me This, A Panel of Experts, Piano Lesson, and Flash In Naples (1982-87/2022), is a collection of four screen prints posthumously published by Pace Prints. Limited to an edition of 85, each piece is stamped and signed by Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, the artist's sisters and executors of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
January 6, 2025
