Jean-Michel Basquiat: Gold Dinosaur Box Candle

Produced by Ligne Blanche and renowned perfumer Givaudan in collaboration with the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, this fig-scented candle is contained in a Limoges porcelain pot that features multiple reproductions of the artist’s painting Pez Dispenser (1984).

Evoking the childhood joy of Pez candies, this work alludes to 1980s consumer culture and pictures a dinosaur figure donning a gold three-pointed crown, a symbol that Basquiat often used to convey spiritual power and strength. White lines run along the dinosaur’s spine and torso like a skeletal framework. As a child, Basquiat studied the medical textbook Gray’s Anatomy while recuperating from an injury; Pez Dispenser’s anatomical imagery may be derived from these memories from the artist’s youth.