“The secret was not to resist white culture in order to preserve the purity of its own heritage (as had been first necessary and fashionable) but to both comprehend and transcend white culture by learning and appropriating its achievements (its crowning, in Basquiat’s imagery) and its disintegration.”
—Francesco Pellizzi
Basquiat’s use of word-poetry is evocative of Cy Twombly’s incorporation of calligraphic marks that explore the tension between art and prose. In his Roman Notes series, Twombly’s use of large, gestural marks that recall scripture calls into question ideas of artist’s authorship and originality. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s famed notebooks, Basquiat and Twombly share an engagement with classical antiquity, recalling a bygone era infused with contemporary life. While Twombly’s marks encapsulate the whole canvas, focusing on the artist’s presence in penmanship as opposed to legible writing, Basquiat specific use of isolated words demand to be read. Both artists blur the boundaries between text and image, creating works that evoke emotion, memory and a timeless resonance of what was before. Basquiat’s stark, often confrontational words, however, go one step further, creating a layered depth that anchors themes of race, inequality and suffering. Basquiat’s poignant word-poetry therefore is inextricably embedded within the visual cadence of his distinctive visceral imagery.
Rome Plays Off is one in a series of four prints that showcase Basquiat’s deepest and most profound engagement with history, language and identity. Lacking narrative sequence, Portfolio II exemplifies the artist’s extraordinary ability to weave together personal and historical narrative, creating a complex yet deeply individual commentary on identity, legacy and resistance. Throughout the works in Portfolio II there is a sense of defiance and urgency, collective memory and personal history. Each image stands alone as a testament to Basquiat’s intellectual curiosity while working as a whole to combat power structures and transcend prejudice. Portfolio II, therefore,embodies an intersection between a poignant social commentary and Basquiat’s personal narrative and search for identity.
1984/2004 Screenprint in colours, on Saunders Hot Press watercolour paper, the full sheet. S. 112 x 101.3 cm (44 1/8 x 39 7/8 in.) Numbered 'A.P. 10/15' in pencil on the front (an artist's proof, the edition was 85), signed and dated '10.19.04' in pencil by Gerard Basquiat (Administrator of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat) on a stamped Certificate of Authenticity on the reverse, published by David DeSanctis Contemporary Art, New York, framed.