Jean-Michel Basquiat (American, 1960–1988)

Figures Portfolio
Original imagery conceived 1982; published posthumously in 2023.

Complete portfolio of five screenprints in colors on paper

From the limited edition
Each work stamped and signed by Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, the artist’s sisters and administrators of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Authorized by the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Condition: Excellent
Price: on request Plus shipping and applicable taxes

About the Portfolio

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Figures Portfolio brings together five commanding compositions derived from imagery created in 1982, the extraordinary breakthrough year that established Basquiat as one of the most consequential artists of his generation.

Across the portfolio, the human figure is repeatedly constructed, fragmented and transformed. Heads, bodies, skeletal forms, handwritten marks and seemingly spontaneous gestures become part of Basquiat’s highly personal visual language. His figures can appear simultaneously heroic and vulnerable—part anatomy lesson, part self-portrait, part historical archetype.

The imagery speaks directly to many of the themes that occupied Basquiat throughout his career: identity, race, anatomy, mortality, power, history and the representation of the human body. What initially appears raw and improvisational reveals an extraordinarily sophisticated system of symbols and references.

Basquiat in 1982

The importance of the portfolio is heightened by the period from which its imagery originates. 1982 is widely regarded as one of the defining years of Basquiat’s career, when the vocabulary for which he is now internationally recognized came fully into focus.

The frenetic line, skeletal anatomy, masks and heads, repeated words, symbols and aggressively worked surfaces found in these images parallel the language of Basquiat’s most celebrated paintings and drawings of the early 1980s.

Rather than reproducing a more decorative aspect of Basquiat’s work, Figures concentrates on one of its fundamental subjects: the human figure itself.

An Estate-Authorized Edition

The Figures Portfolio was released posthumously with the authorization of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Each screenprint bears the appropriate Estate markings and is signed by Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, Basquiat’s sisters and administrators of his Estate.

This distinction is important. These works are not lifetime prints signed by Jean-Michel Basquiat himself, but rather official Estate-authorized editions created from imagery originating during his lifetime.