Untitled

In the 1980s, Jean Kallina moved to Italy to pursue photography, and while there she met Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, with whom she developed a strong friendship. When she returned to New York City, Kallina’s studio was around the corner from that of Basquiat, and she often photographed him at work. In 1984, Basquiat made Portrait of Jean Kallina, a collage of self-contained images rendered in oilstick and acrylic, and the contemporaneous Untitled seems as if it could have been a study for the larger painting. Similar to the painting, the graphic lines of Untitled coalesce into a mandible-like geometry, then a recurrent image for Basquiat. The small drawing was a gift from the artist to Kallina.