Details
The image
A head built up in layers: a ground of one strong colour, a drawing laid over it, then words and signs pushed into the same space until the face carries as much writing as likeness. A crown sits above it, drawn as a shape rather than as ornament, and the letters are struck out as often as they are finished.
Where it comes from
The vocabulary here comes from the street rather than from the studio: tags, lists, borrowed symbols, a copyright sign in the middle of a face. The paintings that used it kept the speed of graffiti while gaining the surface of a canvas, and they argued that the marks of a city were worth the same attention as its museums. What looks careless is deliberate, and the layering is the evidence.
On the wall
It brings colour and noise into a room, so it suits a studio, a hallway or a living room with strong furniture. Because the composition is dense and the marks are small, it rewards being seen close up as well as from across the room. In a group it should be the piece that sets the volume.
In company
A second sheet from the Iconic collection will balance it rather than compete.Avoid hanging it beside a second dense composition, where the two would read as clutter rather than as conversation.
