Jean Michel Basquiat

A Panel of Experts is painted on stretched canvas. The canvas is on the base of a handmade structure; tied pieces of wood with twine. Basquiat drew some images and painted the background black, which overlaps some of the images. This creates a strong contrast and draws attention to the text and imagery.

The top left side has "VENUS" written with "MADONNA©" crossed out underneath. Basquiat referred to Suzanne Mallouk as "Venus" in his paintings. He crossed out words to bring more attention to them. "I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them," he said. The copyright symbol next to Madonna's name suggests his awareness of her impending fame. Basquiat told his art dealer Larry Gagosian that "she'll be the biggest pop star in the world." There is humour in the painting with Basquiat depicting the catfight between Mallouk and Madonna as stick figures. According to Mallouk, Basquiat told that her that she won the fight which is why he crossed out Madonna's name, adding she "beat her up just like a Puerto Rican girl."

Growing up Basquiat wanted to be a cartoonist. In this painting, he incorporates and repurposes cartoon images. Below the fight, there is a superman-like figure accompanied by the word "KRAK," relating to the comic book style of adding onomatopoeic sound effects. The phrase "SATURDAY MORNING CARTOON" is written on the top right of the painting. On the bottom of the painting, text relating to Saturday morning cartoons is written such as "SUGAR COATED CORN PUFFS," "MILK" and "SUGAR." Basquiat's crown motif which appears frequently in his early work is also present twice.

A Panel of Experts was created for Basquiat's solo exhibition at the Fun Gallery in New York in November 1982. It is now part of the permanent collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

In 2016, A Panel of Experts was displayed at the Vancouver Art Gallery as part of MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture. From September 2017 to January 2018, it was exhibited at the Barbican Centre in London as part of Basquiat: Boom for Real. Madonna, who was Basquiat's date for his Fun Gallery exhibition opening in 1982, visited the Barbican and took a photo in front of the painting in 2017.