What’s Behind Basquiat’s Crown?

Jean-Michel Basquiat is an African-Americam artist who has a neo-Expressionism style.

Much of Basquiat’s work is a suggestive dichotomy. Basquiat’s work depicts social inequality,
inner versus outer experiences, and many other contrasts. Basquiat builds a strong characteristic
through each of his works with the characteristics of the material on canvas that is rough-handed
with intense subjectivity. Some of his works have their own characteristics, namely there is an
image of a crown. The crown symbolizes the cleanliness and majesty of every meaning on the
painting that he made. Basquiat used the crown as a representation of black people who were
depicted as saints and kings. In addition, the crown symbolizes victory and triumph over the
object for which the crown is given. This is based on the successive tragedies that happened to
him in the past from people who looked down on black people to his mother who was admitted
to a mental hospital. The painting with the crown first appeared in 1981 on his work entitled
“Red Kings”. The painting contains two portraits on one canvas. On the right side of the canvas
is a portrait of a skull and on the left side of the canvas is a portrait of himself with the initials, B,
Q, and S. Most works by Basquiat accumulate several references to their surface, such as brush
strokes, certain symbols, and abstract line diagrams.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Red Kings (1981) Private Collection

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Jean-Michel Basquiat, Back of the Neck (1983)

Jean-Michel Basquiat, With Strings Two (1984)

The use of crowns on Basquiat’s work has various meanings with designs depending on
the message he expresses in the painting. He realized the impact of his accomplishments had on
voicing black people’s voice had an impact on his career. By adding a crown to each of his
works, Basquiat believes that those who have experienced similar tragedies to his own are
having a step forward while chin up and wearing the same crown. Actually, Basquiat’s crown
design has no fixed meaning. There is a crown that he depicts with thorns that represent the
difficulties they go through in the process of achieving a career. The dominant themes in
Basquiat’s work are the crown and the head. These symbols have much to say abput struggles of
the critics regarding the contradictions the faced, namely between perceived self-worth and
exclusion, poverty and glory, and intellect and materiality. Basquiat pours his ambition and
understanding of art history into his work which builds the character of the painting very strong
and has a ’rebel’ side. Most artists use a ‘crown’ to symbolize his glory day, this is different from
Basquiat who instead uses a ‘crown’ to symbolize the tragedies he has experienced during his
life as well as to voice the struggles of people who have experienced the similar thing.
 Basquiat’s artistic approach results in a focus on a ‘suggestive dichotomy’ which implies
things like death, self-identity, and race. He takes symbols and references from several things
that include music, religion, and even history. Not infrequently, he gave political comments that
voiced his personal life as an African-American living in society. His very unique personality
has resulted in various works ranging from his debut as an artist to his Neo-Expressionism style
combined with repeated symbols such as the head and the iconic crown symbol with textual
doodles and words. The strokes that arise from Basquiat’s artwork are the result of the plaque
technique which is a technique of modern art itself. Basquiat’s work was born from
contemporary culture with a touch of modern art. Neo-expressionism itself is a painting and
sculpture style of late modernist and early postmodern that began to emerge in the late 1970s.
References:
Emmerling, Leonhard. Jean-Michel Basquiat 1960-1988. Taschen, London.
https://books.google.co.id/books?
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https://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com/article/basquiats_crowns
https://www.thebroad.org/art/jean-michel-basquiat/strings-two
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/111345