In the manner of Jean-Michel Basquiat
American, 1960–1988
Untitled (Per Month), 2026
Acrylic and oilstick on canvas
183 × 244 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.25.3
A crowned skeleton stands in the middle, flanked by two columns of numbers, one to forty, each struck through as if another month had gone. The words say king, power, money, freedom, glory, death, and at the bottom: past, present, future, none. Basquiat crossed words out, he said, so that you would want to read them more. You will read every one of these numbers on your statement.
The brief
A large painting of a crowned figure surrounded by a repeated scrawled list of crossed-out numbers and small symbols, dripping black on yellow. Neo-expressionist painting in acrylic and oilstick, raw urgent figures with skull-like heads and exposed anatomy, scrawled crossed-out words and symbols, three-pointed crowns, arrows and lists, layered colour fields of yellow, red, blue and black on raw canvas, drips and smears, wooden stretcher bars visible at the edges. Museum photograph of the painting on rough canvas, flat even lighting, no frame, no wall, no floor, cropped to the canvas edge.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
