Jean-Michel Basquiat
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| Photo Credit: The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat |
After some more wandering, I saw a spray-painted portrait of a young man on a building with the name “Basquiat” beneath and “SAMO© WAS HERE”. Basquiat’s image and the word “SAMO©” stayed with me. The library was my first stop when digging a bit further into the mysterious Basquiat’s life. I checked out the movie Basquiatand soon had a crash course about his life. As I watched the movie, I realized I was walking around the very neighborhoods Basquiat frequented. The movie was a great introduction to Basquiat’s life and art and led to further curiosities.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, NY on December 22, 1960, to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother. He grew up in a multicultural household as he spoke, read, and wrote in English, French, and Spanish. Basquiat’s mother, Matilde, encouraged Basquiat’s artistic pursuits. He would often accompany her to museums such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When Basquiat was 7, he was hit by a car and hospitalized. Matilde gifted Basquiat with a copy of Grey’s Anatomy to keep him occupied. Basquiat’s fascination with human anatomy began after receiving this book.
By the age of 16, Basquiat and his friend, Al Diaz, began to graffiti tag buildings with their famous phrase SAMO©. The tag of SAMO© would often accompany a witty phrase or drawing. Basquiat began to transition from graffiti to hand-painted postcards and art on t-shirts. He quickly received fame and was highlighted in Soho News and The Village Voice as well as having his art displayed in galleries. He became acquainted with celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, Madonna, Keith Haring, and William Burroughs.
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| Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Jean Michel at Andy’s studio at 860 Broadway, April 23, 1984 Copyright: © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. |
Basquiat found his voice through his art and used his personal experiences as a means of expressing himself. His Haitian and Puerto Rican heritages became major influences in both his life and art as he often expressed his experiences as a Black and Latino man living in America. Colonialism, slavery, capitalism, and the marginalization of various communities throughout America are the underlying themes within many of his paintings. A major symbol within his art is the three-pointed crown. Basquiat’s art often focused on “creating images that honour black men as kings and saints” and chose to use the crown as a means to honor the “majesty of his heroes: groundbreaking athletes, musicians and writers” according to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Art historians continue to dissect and analyze the imagery found throughout Basquiat’s work and how the symbols and themes remain relevant today.
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| Arroz con Pollo, 1981 Acrylic and oil paintstick on canvas, 68 x 84 (172.7 x 213.4 cm) Collection of Felipe Grimberg |
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| Gravestone, 1987 Acrylic, oil, and oil paintstick on wood, 55 1/8 x 67 7/8 x 22 inches (140 x 172.4 x 55.9 cm) Akira Ikeda Gallery, Nagoya |
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| The Ring, 1981 Acrylic on canvas 152.4 x 121.9 cm Private Collection, Courtesy Acquavella Galleries © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York |
Beneath the fame, Basquiat struggled deeply with drug addiction. Many attribute Basquiat’s growing reclusiveness and drug abuse to the passing of his good friend, Andy Warhol. In 1988, Basquiat attempted to seek help for his addictions in Hawaii and was confident that his drug abuse was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, Basquiat was not able to remain sober and succumbed to his addictions at the age of 27, on August 12, 1988. He passed away in the famed 57 Great Jones Street apartment.
The art world mourned the passing of Basquiat but his legacy continues. Basquiat’s fame and importance remain to this day, with many of his pieces selling for millions. In 2017, the Untitled painting sold for $110.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction. Untitled became the most expensive piece of art sold by a US artist at an auction. Basquiat’s art is on display in museums across the globe and continues to draw crowds and interest.
If you are interested in learning more about Jean-Michel Basquiat, check out the items listed below:
Summary:
In 1981, a nineteen-year-old unknown graffiti writer takes the New York art world by storm.
Summary:
"The dazzling, provocative work of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) would come to define the vibrant New York art scene of the late '70s and early '80s. Punk, jazz, graffiti, hip-hop: his work drew heavily on the cultural trappings of lower Manhattan, to which he fled--from Brooklyn--at the age of 15. This stunning graphic novel captures the dramatic life and exhilarating times of this archetypal New York artist, covering everything from the SAMO graffiti project to his first solo show, from his relationship with Andy Warhol to the substance abuse that would cost him his life. Today, Basquiat's influence can be seen not only in fine art but in fashion, design, and music. Now, for the first time, his remarkable story is told in graphic novel form. This playful, authoritative biography shows Basquiat's work to be more important, his themes more urgent, than ever before."--Provided by publisher.
Summary:
"Cool, talented and transgressive, Jean-Michel Basquiat's life is just as fascinating as the work he produced. Delve into 1980s New York as this vivid graphic novel takes you on Basquiat's journey from street-art legend SAMO to international art-scene darling, up until his sudden death. Told through cinematic scenes, this is Basquiat as seen through the eyes of those who knew him, including his father, Suzanne Mallouk, Larry Gagosian and, most importantly, the man himself. Basquiat is a moving depiction of a troubled artist's life for those interested in both the art and the man who made it.”
Summary:
Jean-Michel Basquiat was a rock star of the early 80s art scene: he lived fast, died young and created thousands of drawings and paintings. It took less than a decade to go from anonymous graffiti writer to an epoch-defining art star. He has emerged as one of the most important artists of his generation and his work is now exhibited in museums all over the world.
Summary:
Featuring foldouts, candid photographs, and full-page color installation shots, this beautiful new book celebrates the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat over his brief but meteoric career. Dozens of historical photographs, both black-and-white and color, connect the text with the close to sixty color plates, providing invaluable insight into the life and work of this seminal artist. Art historian Robert Farris Thompson delivers a detailed analysis of some of Basquiat's most iconic paintings, situating them within the artist's own oeuvre, as well as the larger landscape of twentieth-century art. Rounding out this stunning volume, the late Rene Ricard provides a rare but accurate glimpse into the private world of Basquiat, recounting their sometimes fraught friendship, from their first meeting in 1981 to Basquiat's death in 1988.
Summary:
Black History in Its Own Words started in January 2015 when Matt Bors asked me to find eight quotes and illustrate them for The Nib for February, Black History Month. I chose quotes ranging from the casual to the profound from luminaries both past and present. I had so much fun that I did four extra. The next year, 2016, I drafted 12 more; I had a habit. Presented here are the original 24 as well as 15 new ones for 2017.
Summary:
Controversial cult artist, enfant terrible of the art world, friend of Haring and Warhol, and both idol and a victim of the art scene of the '80s-Jean-Michel Basquiat was a legend in his own lifetime. This catalog, published in conjunction with the major retrospective at the Lugano Museum of Modern Art, provides an excellent overview of Basquiat's life and work. As an African-American painter, Basquiat has made a significant impact on the history of contemporary art. From his origins as a street graffiti artist, he became one of the most influential artists of his time: in 2005 his work is being celebrated in separate exhibitions in the US and Europe. As emblems of the contemporary world, his explosive, colorful, and apparently canvases have an unparalleled force. The brief but intense artistic career of this celebrated proponent of the downtown New York art scene of the 1980s is covered through some fifty paintings and twenty works on paper drawn from prestigious private collections and museums. This book offers a new intense dialogue with the more modern expressions of twentieth-century art.
Summary:
In his short career, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a phenomenon. He became notorious for his graffiti art under the moniker Samo in the late 1970s on the Lower East Side scene, sold his first painting to Deborah Harry for $200, and became best friends with Andy Warhol. Appreciated by both the art cognoscenti and the public, Basquiat was launched into international stardom.
Summary:
Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocked to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art work had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe's vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat's own introduce young readers to the powerful message and art doesn't always have to be neat or clean--and definitely not inside the lines--to be beautiful.
Summary:
In the early 1980s, art and writing labeled as graffiti transitioned from New York City walls and subway trains onto canvas and into art galleries. Young artists who freely sampled from their urban experiences and their largely black, Latino and immigrant histories infused the downtown art scene with expressionist, pop and graffiti-inspired compositions. Jean-Michel Basquiat was among the best known of these emerging artists. He and his fellow creators - including A-One, ERO, Fab 5 Freddy, Futura, Keith Haring, Kool Koor, LA2, Lady Pink, Lee Quiñones, Rammellzee and Toxic - became avant-garde leaders infiltrating and reshaping the predominantly white art world. This book captures the energy, inventiveness, and resistance unleashed when hip-hop went 'all city'.00Exhibition: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA (05.04.-02.08.2020).
Summary:
Join us on a journey across borders, through time and even through space to meet 52 icons of color from the past and present in a celebration of achievement. Meet figureheads, leaders, and pioneers such as Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Rosa Parks, as well as cultural trailblazers and sporting heroes, including Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey, and Serena Williams. Discover how their childhood dreams and experiences influenced their adult achievements. This book will help the next generation to chase their own dream . . . whatever it may be.
This book brings together 52 iconic talents from the past and present and celebrates their inspirational achievements. Meet figureheads, leaders and pioneers such as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks, as well as cultural trailblazers and sporting heroes, including Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey and Serena Williams.
Resources:
Jean-Michel Basquiat: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao: Heroes and Saints. (n.d.). Retrieved January 07, 2021, from http://basquiat.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/heroes-and-saints/
- by Michelle RodrÃguez, Robbinsville Branch
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