Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Exhibition dates April 11- May 11 2016

Interlude

2-10

Neoxpressionism

11-20

Dihotomy

21-30

Warhol

31-36

Conclusion

37-40

Famous by age 20 for his groundbreaking drawings and paintings, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) took the cultural hotbed of the New York art world by storm in the early 1980s.

Basquiat gained international recognition by creating powerful and expressive works that confronted issues of racism, politics and social hypocrisy. Although his career was cut short by his untimely death at age 27, his works remain hugely influential.

Charismatic image aside, Basquiat was a prodigious young talent, fusing drawing and painting with history and poetry to produce an unprecedented artistic language and content that bridged cultures and enunciated alternative histories. Combining materials and techniques with uninhibited yet knowing and precise intent, his paintings maintain a powerful tension between opposing aesthetic forces— expression and knowledge, control and spontaneity, savagery and wit, urbanity and primitivism—while providing acerbic commentary on the harsh realities of race, culture, and society.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Self Portrait, 1984, acrylic and oilstick on paper

In September 1968, when Basquiat

Basquiat dropped out of Edward R.

was about eight, he was hit by a car

Murrow High School in the tenth grade

while playing in the street. His arm was

and then attended City-As-School, an

broken and he suffered several internal

alternative high school in Manhattan

injuries, and he eventually underwent a

home to many artistic students that have

splenectomy. While he was recuperating

been failed by conventional schooling. His

from his injuries, his mother brought him

father banished him from the household

the Gray’s Anatomy book to keep him

for dropping out of high school and

occupied. This book would prove to be

Basquiat stayed with friends in Brooklyn.

influential in his future artistic outlook. His

He supported himself by selling T-shirts

parents separated that year and he and

and homemade post cards.

his sisters were raised by their father. The family resided in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, for five years, then moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1974. After two years, they returned to New York City.

When he was 13, his mother was committed to a mental institution and thereafter spent time in and out of institutions.At 15, Basquiat ran away from home. He slept on park benches in Tompkins Square Park, and was arrested and returned to the care of his father within a week.

In March 1982 he worked in Modena, Italy and from November, Basquiat worked from the ground-floor display and studio space Larry Gagosian had built below his Venice, California home and commenced a series of paintings for a 1983 show, his second at Gagosian Gallery, then in West Hollywood.[20] He brought along his girlfriend, then unknown aspiring singer Madonna.[21] During this time he took considerable interest in the work that Robert Rauschenberg was producing at Gemini G.E.L. in West Hollywood, visiting him on several occasions and finding inspiration in the accomplishments of the painter.[20] In 1982, Basquiat also worked briefly with musician and artist David Bowie. In 1983, Basquiat produced a 12� rap single featuring hip-hop artists Rammellzee and K-Rob. Billed as Rammellzee vs. K-Rob.

Fred Hoffman hypothesizes that underlying Basquiat’s sense of himself as an artist was his “innate capacity to function as something like an oracle, distilling his perceptions of the outside world down to their essence and, in turn, projecting them outward through his creative acts.”Additionally, continuing his activities as a graffiti artist, Basquiat often incorporated words into his paintings.

Before his career as a painter began, he produced punk-inspired postcards for sale on the street, and became known for the political–poetical graffiti under the name of SAMO. On one occasion Basquiat painted his girlfriend’s dress with the words “Little Shit Brown”.

In 1976, Basquiat and his friend Al Diaz began spraypainting the walls of lower Manhattan under the pseudonym SAMO©, alluding to the saying “same old shit.” Their work cleverly used and manipulated text to provoke those who walked by. Eventually Basquiat’s renown grew, as he started a noise rock band, appeared in Edo Bertoglio’s indie film Downtown 81 and struck up a friendship with Andy Warhol. In 1982 — when he was 21 — Basquiat’s first solo show sold out. Experiencing sudden popularity, he found himself sharing ideas with David Bowie, briefly dating Madonna, appearing in music videos and gracing the cover of The New York Times Magazine. Now, more than 25 years after his death, his influence remains.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Scull, 1981. Acrylic, oilstick,

Jean-Michel Basquiat Exu 1988

A middle period from late 1982 to 1985 featured multi-panel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage and imagery. The years 1984–85 were also the main period of the Basquiat–Warhol collaborations, even if, in general, they weren’t very well received by the critics.

A major reference source used by Basquiat throughout his career was the book Gray’s Anatomy, which his mother had given him while he was in the hospital at age seven. It remained influential in his depictions of internal human anatomy, and in its mixture of image and text.

Other major sources were Henry Dreyfuss’ Symbol Sourcebook, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, and Brentjes’ African Rock Art. (the study of birds) is a reference to Parker’s 1946 composition and his nickname, Bird. The word Pree is the name of Parker’s daughter who died at the age of 2. He also features the physical appearance of music by listing body parts

Fallen Angel 1981

Profit 1. 1982

“Like a DJ, Basquiat adeptly reworked Neo-expressionism’s clichéd language of gesture, freedom, and angst and redirected Pop art’s strategy of appropriation to produce a body of work that at times celebrated black culture and history but also revealed its complexity and contradictions.”

— Lydia Lee

Cabeza, 1982 Prints and Multiples

Irony of Negro Policeman (1981)

I rony of Negro Policeman (1981), is intended to illustrate how AfricanAmericans have been controlled by a predominantly Caucasian society.

Basquiat sought to portray how complicit African-Americans have become with the “institutionalized forms of whiteness and corrupt white regimes of power” years after the Jim Crow era had ended.

439– 449 Basquiat found the concept of a “Negro policeman” utterly ironic. It would seem that this policeman should sympathize with his black friends, family, and ancestors, yet instead he was there to enforce the rules designed by “white society.” The Negro policeman had “black skin but wore a white mask”. In the painting, Basquiat depicted the policeman as large in order to suggest an “excessive and totalizing power”, but made the policeman’s body fragmented and broken.

I don’t listen to what art critics say. I don’t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.

- Jean Michel Basquiat

Music was an important part of Basquiat’s life. He DJ’ed, was in a band called “Gray,” owned thousands of records and cassettes and constantly listened to music while painting. He was particularly inspired by bebop jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, both featured in this work.

Basquiat portrayed images of black men he admired (musicians, boxers, athletes) in his works, seeing them as heroes and inspiration for his own work. Ornithology (the study of birds) is a reference to Parker’s 1946 composition and his nickname, Bird. The word Pree is the name of Parker’s daughter who died at the age of 2. He also features the physical appearance of music by listing body parts he associates with listening dancing and singing; ear, feet, larynx and teeth. There is a musical pattern to the work; the heads are arranged in an upand-down pattern, and words are scattered about the canvas.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Horn Players, 1983. Three panels: acrylic

Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat 1988 UNTITLED

Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat 1988 UNTITLED (TWO DOGS)

Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Paramount. 1984-85.

Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Zenith)-1984

An odd couple in contemporary art history, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, had a bright beginning together.

A popular pop artist Andy Warhol found a young Jean Michel Basquiat who was a rising star in street art. Both artists inspired each other with their vibrant colors, forms, and passion in art. It was an opportunity for them because after pop art, there was no mainstream art movement appealed to the general public and Basquiat’s rebellious style drew attention again of wide variety of audience. A number of successful collaborative exhibitions under the name of The Collaborations were held.

These included such work Paramount (1984-85) which married Warhol’s flat, commercial logos and Basquiat’s sociopolitical sarcastic figures. Despite the pair’s success in the art market, they realized that this symbiosis was also detrimental and fell apart soon after.

I had some money, I made the best paintings ever. I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people.

- Jean Michel Basquiat

After pop art boom of the 1950s and

It was a great opportunity for Basquiat

1960s, the art world lost its direction as

to work with famous Andy Warhol who

a mainstream art. There were several

was a powerful brand name by this time;

artists that caught the public’s attention

moreover, it was also no loss for Warhol to

for brief moments, but when the street art

meet Basquiat whose radical style inspired

appeared, it changed the game. While

Warhol to a new challenge. A usual

criticized by public workers as vandalism

process would start with Andy Warhol

and crime, street art brought new rhythm

first painting on the canvas, and then

to public spaces as well as to mainstream

Basquiat elaborated the work in his own

artists like Warhol’s style. During his later

style. The Collaborations featuring Andy

years, Warhol focused on abstraction

Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat lasted

and reproduction but still kept his iconic

for about five years until Warhol’s death

commercial logos. Bruno Bischofberger,

with positive attitudes for artistic success.

Warhol’s art dealer, thought “it would be interesting to ask him to work with one or two younger artists.” (Bischofberger 106) Interestingly, Basquiat was surprisingly accepted the offer enthusiastically contrary to his usual defensive behavior, which Bischofberger implied Basquiat’s interest in working with the big-named Warhol (Bischofberger 106).

The combination of Warhol’s mechanically reproducible, flat images and Basquiat’s hand-painted physicality and purposeful primitivism served both artists well. Though teaming up with the legendary Warhol was certainly a coup for the twenty-three year old Basquiat, the reciprocity of the collaboration should not be underestimated. Basquiat’s powerful imagery, poetic symbolism, and youthful frenzy reinvigorated Warhol, whose career had been relatively quiescent for the previous decade. With regards to both artistic spirit and commercial career, the collaboration could not have come at a better time for either: “Jean-Michel thought he needed Andy’s fame, and Andy thought he needed Jean-Michel’s new blood. Jean-Michel gave Andy a rebellious image again.”

Copyright ©1983

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum 2 East 91st Street New York, NY 10128 212-849-8351 www.ndm.si.edu