Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump

Painted in 1982, this large canvas shows a wild-haired figure standing tall next to a scrappy dog, both rendered in Basquiat's raw, scribbly style. The title refers to a "johnnypump," which is New York slang for a fire hydrant, the kind kids would open on hot summer days to cool off in the spray of water. That childhood memory sits underneath the chaos of paint, oil stick, and spray, giving the busy surface a personal root in the artist's own life growing up in Brooklyn.

Basquiat worked fast and loud, mixing graffiti, cartoon shapes, and anatomy that looks almost like a medical diagram. The boy's skeleton and ribs show through his body, a detail Basquiat used often after studying an old anatomy book as a child when he was recovering from a car accident. The colors here are hot and clashing, oranges, reds, and turquoise slapped together with drips left visible, so the whole thing feels like it was made in a burst of energy. It comes from the peak of his short career, when he shot from street artist to art world star in just a few years before his death at 27.

1982 was Basquiat's breakthrough year, and paintings from this period are now among the most sought-after of his work. This one in particular has passed through major collections and set records at auction, a striking fate for an image built around a kid playing in a fire hydrant.