07/16/2025
At the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts—in a city where French, English, Haitian Creole, Arabic, Mandarin, Punjabi, and countless other tongues mingle—we made a beeline for Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “A Panel of Experts” (1982). The 60 × 60-inch canvas, stretched over a hand-tied wooden frame and veiled in jet-black acrylic, crackles with urban noise: “VENUS” hovers above a crossed-out “MADONNA©,” stick figures trade cartoon punches beside a bold “KRAK,” and cereal-box slogans (“SUGAR-COATED CORN PUFFS,” “MILK,” “SUGAR”) scroll along the base.
Interesting fact: Basquiat nicknamed his ex-girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk “VENUS.” The crossed-out “MADONNA©” nods to his then-girlfriend Madonna—he remarked to dealer Larry Gagosian that she would become “the biggest pop star in the world.” Reflecting that belief, Basquiat once said, “I cross out words so you will see them more: the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.”
Basquiat grew up hearing Haitian-French from his father, Spanish from his mother, and New York street slang all around him—an eclectic chorus that mirrors Montréal’s own cultural mosaic. That mix turns the painting into more than pop mythology; it’s a commentary on fame, identity, and who gets to write the headlines. Crowned glyphs bless—and skewer—the scene, cementing its status as one of the museum’s most magnetic works and a mirror for a city that thrives on overlapping stories, languages, and rhythms.

Jean-Michel Basquiat
“A Panel of Experts”, 1982
Acrylic and oil pastel on paper mounted on canvas, 60 × 60 in.
Gift of Ira Young, inv. 1990.29 — Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
