Jean-Michel Basquiat

Executed in 1982, "Da Vinci's Water Theory" For Victor Hugo is a powerful and vibrant portrait of the enigmatic Victor Hugo; Halston’s lover, a performance artist and permanent fixture in the social fabric of Andy Warhol’s factory. However, unlike Warhol’s erotic representations of the performance artist-cum window designer, Basquiat’s emphasis lies on his more obscure and mysterious dimensions. Wearing a snug-fitting athletic top, he is depicted as an almost ghostly persona emerging from a dark background, evocative of the underground sub-culture in which he thrived. Here, Basquiat’s palette drifts minimal, opting for a warm ochre tone for both Hugo’s top and face. His skin is a cool, creamy white, accentuated by passages of bright, blood red on his arms, shoulders and head which invigorate the figure. Reminiscent of Egon Schiele, with whom Basquiat’s draftsmanship is often compared, the artist’s controlled use of the white outline around Hugo’s face adds to the wraithlike sense that the figure is ethereally emerging from the dark mulberry background.

Basquiat, much like the great Jazz musicians, art historical icons and nascent hip-hop innovators with whom he identified and admired, was never afraid to ‘sample’ the creations of his artistic forebears. He was not alone in this partiality: indeed, Hugo himself appropriated his moniker from the eponymous French author of such classics as Notre-Dame de Paris. In the present work, Basquiat, turns to Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘water theories’ for inspiration. In the background, the artist has repeatedly scratched Leonardo and Hugo’s names in a veritable obsessive litany.  The loose nature of this text feels fanatical and compulsive.  Yet, despite its apparent randomness, there is a rhythm and vibrancy throughout.  Though the artist was tortured with the strain of sudden success, desperate excess and peer pressure, he always found solace in the history of art and embrace of music.  These indissoluble connections informed his art, appearing and reappearing in intervals throughout his compositions.   "Da Vinci's Water Theory" For Victor Hugo is testament to this level of devotion. For, in the midst of the moral vacuousness of the Pop scene, Basquiat’s portrait unquestionably reflects his ebullient musical inclination and art historical reverence.