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Back of the Neck
Contemporary Art
About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s massive print Back of the Neck requires both a step back and a closer look. It is rare to see a work on paper of this size, and maybe even rarer to see a piece by Basquiat outside of a private collection; it has taken a long time for public institutions to give him his deserved flowers, despite his fame. Inspired by a childhood encounter with the book Gray’s Anatomy, he bends, exposes, and twists a neck, spine, and arm in this work, each body part annotated as if this were a medical guide. His classic gold crown and copyright symbol are also present. As a whole, the image is uncomfortable and vulnerable—the artist’s specialty.
For Basquiat, Brooklyn was always home, no matter where his career led him. He spent his youth between Park Slope, East Flatbush, and Boerum Hill, and often visited the Brooklyn Museum with his mom, who was also Brooklyn born and bred. The Museum is one of a handful of public institutions that has acquired his work, and it organized the major 2005 traveling retrospective on his career in addition to later exhibitions. Each effort has sought to honor the hometown hero who cultivated an early interest in art by walking through Brooklyn Museum’s halls.
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Gallery Label
In 1983 Brooklyn-born Jean-Michel Basquiat received solo exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles after participating in the 1982 German exhibition Documenta 7. That year, fellow graffiti artist Michael Stewart was arrested and died, according to the medical examiner’s report, of “physical injury to the spinal cord in the upper neck.”
In Back of the Neck, Basquiat’s drawings of a spine and arms are topped by a solid-gold crown, a symbol he bestowed upon his most admired subjects. Despite being crowned as the art world’s new golden child, Basquiat was aware that the threat of violence to his Black body was always near.
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s massive print Back of the Neck requires both a step back and a closer look. It is rare to see a work on paper of this size, and maybe even rarer to see a piece by Basquiat outside of a private collection; it has taken a long time for public institutions to give him his deserved flowers, despite his fame. Inspired by a childhood encounter with the book Gray’s Anatomy, he bends, exposes, and twists a neck, spine, and arm in this work, each body part annotated as if this were a medical guide. His classic gold crown and copyright symbol are also present. As a whole, the image is uncomfortable and vulnerable—the artist’s specialty.
For Basquiat, Brooklyn was always home, no matter where his career led him. He spent his youth between Park Slope, East Flatbush, and Boerum Hill, and often visited the Brooklyn Museum with his mom, who was also Brooklyn born and bred. The Museum is one of a handful of public institutions that has acquired his work, and it organized the major 2005 traveling retrospective on his career in addition to later exhibitions. Each effort has sought to honor the hometown hero who cultivated an early interest in art by walking through Brooklyn Museum’s halls.
***
Gallery Label
In 1983 Brooklyn-born Jean-Michel Basquiat received solo exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles after participating in the 1982 German exhibition Documenta 7. That year, fellow graffiti artist Michael Stewart was arrested and died, according to the medical examiner’s report, of “physical injury to the spinal cord in the upper neck.”
In Back of the Neck, Basquiat’s drawings of a spine and arms are topped by a solid-gold crown, a symbol he bestowed upon his most admired subjects. Despite being crowned as the art world’s new golden child, Basquiat was aware that the threat of violence to his Black body was always near.
PRINTER
Joel Sterns
PUBLISHERS
Gagosian; New City Editions
MEDIUM
Silkscreen with hand painting
DATES
1983
DIMENSIONS
50 1/2 x 102in. (128.3 x 259.1cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
"JM Basquiat 83" graphite, LR
INSCRIPTIONS
Inscribed in pencil LL verso: "1/24"
COLLECTIONS
Contemporary Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
84.48
CREDIT LINE
Charles Stewart Smith Memorial Fund
PROVENANCE
April 12, 1984, purchased from Barbara Gladstone Gallery, NYC by the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Jean-Michel Basquiat (American, 1960–1988). Back of the Neck, 1983. Silkscreen with hand painting, 50 1/2 x 102in. (128.3 x 259.1cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Stewart Smith Memorial Fund, 84.48. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 84.48_SL3.jpg)
EDITION
Edition: 24
IMAGE
overall, 84.48_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2019
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© artist or artist's estate
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