In Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Swinging Diamonds, 1987, the lower right portion of the sheet is filled with the artist's unmistakable hieroglyphics. A cascading waterfall of signs spills across the picture, revealing a pool of various shapes, portraits, and text, all executed with precision and a vivid palette. The lines are bold and applied with unabashed resoluteness, varying greatly from the vigorous yet unrestrained hand of earlier works. The coloring is controlled and stays within the boundaries and confines of each shape across the surface. While dynamic, each symbol maintains its own space, prohibiting any crossover between forms; however, though each is contained, the symbols together read almost like a letter, challenging the viewer to decode the message within.

Created a year before the artist’s death, Swinging Diamonds, 1987 captures a sense of care and attention that is unrecognizable in many of Basquiat's earlier work. Accustomed to working with abandon when it came to wielding a paint brush and oil sticks, Basquiat here displays a discipline that seems to be drawn from experience. Each letter of text, from “widow” to “non-belligerent”, to the title “swinging diamonds,” is printed with the intent of an author who knows precisely the message he wishes to convey. The concentration of drawings in the lower right portion, once again, seems to be a deliberate choice, as if the artist restricted himself to stay within an assigned quadrant. The juxtaposition of the highly inundated corner and the purity of the remaining sheet, coupled with the vibrant palette and bold execution of each rendering, makes the present lot a moment of visual clarity amongst the entropy that is Basquiat.