Ricard

This emotive painting captures the late American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who is known for his Neo-Expressionist, graffiti-style art. Now one of the world's most valuable artists, he explored themes of race, self-identity and mortality and was friends with Keith Haring and Andy Warhol. 

It includes a line from the 1996 Basquiat film - 'Respect, fools get. Disrespect, I get' - along with a reference to Rene Ricard, an American poet and art critic who helped bring Basquiat to fame. Jon uses oil on board, with Indian ink and pencil. 

He says: “I like artists who use thick impasto paint, like Lucian Freud, Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach. In my mind, this is how oil painting should be: seeing the brushstrokes and understanding how a painting is constructed.”

Shop more of Jon's original art here.