Jean-Michel Basquiat's Anterior View, from the Anatomy portfolio, draws the arm from scapula to phalanges in a single vertical descent — shoulder joint, elbow, radius, the fingers splayed at the base — each component named and labelled against the black ground in white line. It is the most complete structural study in the portfolio, the arm presented as a working assembly of parts rather than a fragment, and it is also the most legible image in the series, the kind of diagram that could have come directly from the Grey's Anatomy pages Basquiat had studied since childhood.

The arm is the instrument of making — the part of the body through which a painter works, through which a musician plays, through which a fighter throws a punch. That Basquiat chose to draw it with this degree of anatomical specificity, in a portfolio produced in 1982 at Annina Nosei's gallery while his own arm was producing some of the most discussed paintings in New York, is not incidental. The anterior view — the front view, the view that faces outward — presents the arm as it appears to the world rather than as it is experienced from inside it, the body seen from the position of the examining physician rather than the person being examined.

What makes Anterior View characteristic of the Anatomy portfolio as a whole is the gap between the precision of the terminology and the quality of the line that carries it. PHALANGES is misspelled. The scapula's ribs are rendered with quick, uneven strokes. The labels are placed with care but the hand that placed them is entirely visible — not a diagram, but a drawing that has borrowed the diagram's authority and is wearing it loosely.

For more information or to buy Anterior View, from the Anatomy portfolio by Jean-Michel Basquiat, contact our specialists using the enquiry button above.