Masque 1981

Jean-Michel Basquiat painted 'Masque', but we don't know exactly when, and its made with the energy of a spray can, even though its paint. It’s like he's building the face from chunks of color – reds and blacks smudged together, raw canvas peeking through. You can almost feel him wrestling with the paint, trying to capture something elusive. The crown on top, that crude white line, suddenly elevates this figure to royalty, or maybe it's mocking the whole idea of it. Look at the mouth – those scribbled lines trapped in a circle. Is it a cage? A grimace? So much of the work feels unresolved. Basquiat reminds me of Cy Twombly, in the way that both artists scrawl and scratch and build these worlds that feel ancient and utterly present, all at once. It’s a beautiful mess, and that's exactly the point, isn't it? The meaning is in the making.