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A radiant memorial for the radiant child himself, Jean-Michel Basquiat: painted on an urn with uncharacteristic care are the initials “JMB”. On the lower edge pink cursive reads “July 12, 1989”, almost exactly a year after Basquiat’s passing. Translucent yellow emanates from the vessel. Above Ricard has written Celadon (the green-glazed porcelain which originates in China), rooting the image in history. This is a favorite visual device of Ricard, the color-referent. He writes the name of a color in a disparate hue, adjacent to the color it represents. Here “Celadon” is written in black, over a jade-green ground.
The JMB monogram is an elegant callback to Basquiat’s various graffiti “tags” of which Ricard mused: “In these autographs is the inherent pathos of the archaeological site, the cry down the vast endless track of time that “I am somebody,” on a wall in Pompeii, on a rock at Piraeus, in the subway graveyard at some future archaeological dig…”
Oilstick and acrylic over silkscreen on paper
Paper 40 × 26 in. / 102 x 67 cm | Frame 46 x 32 in. / 117 x 82 cm
Signed RR lower right in pencil
