Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper), 1985-1986

This provocative work is a study in juxtapositions, paradoxes, and contradictions, reflective of the dynamic relationship between Warhol and Basquiat. Warhol’s Renaissance-like depictions of Jesus, refer to both artists’ shared Catholic faith and the socio-political upheaval in the 1980s. Each figure of Christ is altered with a different physical injury, such as scratches, black eyes, and other bruises. One bag shows an armless black human form, similar to the one that Basquiat painted of Michael Stewart in his 1983 work Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart). Scribbled and drawn in typical Basquiat style, the word “Judge” is found on each bag, making a powerful commentary on the disparity between the Christian doctrine of non-judgment and Christianity’s exclusionary stance on homosexuality — which was especially evident during the AIDS epidemic. Symbolically, the number of punching bags serves as biblical references to the Ten Commandments and the ten lepers, or outcasts whom Jesus cleansed.

Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart), 1983