[1] Jean-Michel Basquiat rose to prominence as a graffiti artist in the late 1970s, operating under the pseudonym SAMO.

Flexible was painted on a slatted 8.5 ft tall wood support that had been deconstructed from the fence at his studio in Venice, California.

[2] Basquiat later made several wood slat picture supports from material purchased at a SoHo lumber yard in New York.

[2] The wood slat fencing material was used in more than 17 paintings made between 1984 and 1986, including Gold Griot (1984), M (1984), Grillo (1984), and Jim Crow (1986).

[4] Flexible depicts a griot—a storyteller, musician, and purveyor of oral history from West African culture—whose arms are joined together as a continuous band above the head.