Back of the Neck
Brooklyn Museum photograph
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.
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)
Tags
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Back of the Neck
Date
1983
Medium
Silkscreen with hand painting
Classification
Dimensions
50 1/2 x 102in. (128.3 x 259.1cm)
Signatures
"JM Basquiat 83" graphite, LR
Inscriptions
Inscribed in pencil LL verso: "1/24"
Credit Line
Charles Stewart Smith Memorial Fund
Accession Number
84.48
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
Copyright for this work may be controlled by the artist, the artist's estate, or other rights holders. A more detailed analysis of its rights history may, however, place it in the public domain. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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