Jean-Michel Basquiat La Colomba Analysis

Neo-Expressionist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, explores ideas of inequality and peace in his 1983 painting, La Colomba. This, oil and print on canvas, features a figure in the center with an over-sized oblong head with a distorted black torso. The background of the composition consists of a collage of photocopied drawings and images. The left side is painted over with a sky blue and right side displays scribbled olive branches overlaying the upper half. The left of the figure a splatter of red paint resembling blood drips down the blue background. The centered figure appears to be in great agony with bruises upon the face and blood spewing from the mouth. Directly below the face a severed arm is depicted covered in blood. On the right side of the …show more content…
Despite all the chaotic brush strokes and dynamism the image is also unnervingly quiet suggesting psychological disorder. The subject stands alone appearing completely defeated and in complete anguish. Holding a white flag of surrender, the figure begs for mercy and truce. In Italian, "la colomba" means 'the dove', the sign of peace and pacifism. In early Christianity, in times of destruction and despair, a dove is pictured holding an olive branch in its beak. With the suggestion of the olive branch painted in green in the upper right quadrant, along with the white flag, Basquiat hits his theme of peace once again.
Hidden within the collage of photocopied images and text, between the back of the subject’s neck and arm holding the flag, one can look closely and discover two Biblical verses, Revelation 1:11-12 and Kings 7:21-22. Revelation reads, “… saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches….”. Basquiat is referencing the duality of the beginning (alpha) and the end (omega), the fight and the surrender, the suffering and the