Basquiat: Headstrong

Using the head as a site of investigation, Basquiat's frenetic drawings of faces are at once immediate and contemplative. Between 1981 and 1983, Jean-Michel Basquiat made between 50 and 100 drawings of heads. Working with oil stick on paper, he created a series far removed from his public paintings and collages filled with words and symbols—a more concentrated, private study whose pieces are rarely exhibited and seldom offered for sale. Stripped of external references, they read as intimate meditations on identity, perception and the fragile balance between presence and disappearance. Hardcover, 132 pages.