“Riddle Me This, Batman” by Jean Michel Basquiat, produced in 1987, is a neo-expressionist figurative painting (see fig. A.1). It was first exhibited at the Galerie Yvon Lambert in Paris. Two months after its debut, the piece changed hands several times, briefly emerging from private collections and then selling like hot cakes at auction. It recently sold at a Sotheby's auction for over six million dollars.Mark Sagoff 119Million dollar pieces were common in the 1980s. During this period, the price of Neo-Expressionist works steadily increased. In the marketplace of public bidding wars and private sales, it seemed that art no longer had intrinsic value. The ever-increasing prices of these works pushed many artists to produce pieces and in turn achieved enormous profits. However, this rather pessimistic consumerist view of art did not replace the true aesthetic value of Basquiat's “Riddle Me This, Batman”. Rather, it is Basquiat's ability to produce and express reflections on culture, identity and the pains of life, which resist the monetary function of aesthetic value, in favor of an aesthetic standard as a matter of taste. Aesthetic value is determined by a standard. Typically, this standard is called beauty. While beauty is conceptually simple, easily evoked in the mind's eye, it becomes much more complex when used as a scale of aesthetic judgment. Considering one work of art more beautiful than another implies that beauty can be measured, and to do this it is necessary to use an objective standard. There are two problems with considering beauty as an objective standard. In his essay, The Aesthetic Hypothesis, Clive Bell illustrates that aesthetic value is a matter of taste: All aesthetic systems must be personal experience... at the center of the paper... meant to be Warhol's assistant . death in February 1987 plunged Basquiat into depression. His heroin addiction resurfaced, gaining momentum until his death just 18 months later. Works Cited Aristotle, . Metaphysics. Aristotle: Selections. Edited by Terence Irwin and Gail Fine. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1995.Bell, Clive. The aesthetic hypothesis. Aesthetics. Edited by Susan Feagin and Patrick Maynard. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Brooklyn Museum, “Exhibitions: Basquiat.” Accessed 3 December 2011. http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/basquiat/1983.php.Kant, Immanuel. Art and genius. Aesthetics. Edited by Susan Feagin and Patrick Maynard. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction. Last modified: November 9, 2010. Accessed December 4, 2011. http://tinyurl.com/7abp44j.