Focus on this artwork and analyze the Background.
In early 1980, Basquiat abandoned his prolific downtown graffiti pseudonym SAMO (SAMe Old shit) in order to embrace his career as a painter. In retrospect he stated, "I wrote SAMO IS DEAD all over the place. And I started painting." Untitled (Gem Spa) was produced in 1982 during an important turning point in his career. Basquiat stated, "I had some money; I made the best paintings ever,'' referencing his work from this early highpoint.The figure in the painting is surrounded by arrangement of symbols and words such as "tar," "asphalt," "motor area," "Gem Spa," and "have teeth," whose partially obscured presence give the painting "a particular depth." The viewer encounters the newly born radiant child escaping the destiny faced by a black American born in Brooklyn, breaking free from the confines of the social determinism, and posthumously finding a place among the most acclaimed, sought after, and expensive artists. However he never escaped the disillusionment experienced after losing his mother to involuntary treatment resulting from her attempted suicide. Despite several attempts at sobriety, he never outran his addiction and ultimately succumbed to heroin. In the article "The Radiant Child", published 1981 in Artforum, the art critic Rene Ricard states, "We are that radiant child and have spent our lives defending that little baby, constructing and adult around it to protect it from the unlisted signals of forces we have no control over."
Rene Ricard Artforum Gem Spa sobriety social determinism Brooklyn involuntary treatment SAMO heroin motor area