Flexible, based on a panel painting created in Basquiat’s Venice, California studio in 1984, portrays the griot—a storyteller, entertainer, and purveyor of oral history from West African culture. Referencing the artist’s exploration of and struggle with the role of artist-as-everyman, his interest in imagery from earlier cultures, an affinity for historical and contemporary black figures and an x-ray view into internal organs, Flexible conveys an examination of identity. Basquiat’s signature broad, aggressive brush strokes and flat areas of color both reveal and conceal previous layers of paint and imagery, framing one of the artist’s most arresting and iconic figures.
The posthumous release is stamped and signed by Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, the artist’s sisters and administrators of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
