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.

© Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Back of the Neck, 1983.
© Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

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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.