Jean-Michel Basquiat
Biography and Paintings of New York Graffiti
Artist.
|
Jean-Michel Basquiat |
|
|
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88)Contents • Introduction |
|
|
The New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was a significant figure in the transition of graffiti art from a clandestine street activity to mainstream postmodernist art. Despite his premature death from a heroin overdose at the age of 27, the reputation of his raw style of neo-expressionism - with its references to jazz and African art - remains high, and he is regarded by 'cool' art critics as one of the important postmodernist artists of urban America. Prices for his canvases have risen accordingly. Although his position in 20th century American art seems relatively secure, whether it will remain so is an open question. Basquiat was a contemporary of the formally trained New York spray-painter Keith Haring (1958-90), who died from AIDS two years later. |
|
BEST PAINTERS/SCULPTORS THE GREATEST ART MODERN PAINTERS GRAFFITI PAINTERS |
|
|
|
Brooklyn-born Jean-Michel Basquiat was the eldest of three children. His mother Matilde Andrades was of Puerto Rican descent, while his father Gerard Basquiat was Haitian. A fast learner, he soon demonstrated a natural gift for both art and languages, which were encouraged by his mother as well as his school teachers. At the age of 7, Basquiat suffered serious injuries after being hit by a passing car, and had a splenectomy. It was during this time that his parents separated. Jean-Michel and and his siblings were cared for by their father. At the age of 15, Basquiat ran away from home, sleeping rough in Washington Square Park for several days, before being arrested and returned to his father. Not long afterwards he quit school and also left home for good, earning money by selling T-shirts and other items. By 1976, Basquiat along with his friends Al Diaz and Shannon Dawson began spray painting cryptic sayings on buildings and subway trains around lower Manhattan, signing them with the name SAMO© (Same Old Shit). This mural painting proved to be a highly effective publicity tactic. In December 1978, the Village Voice published an article about the graffiti. Then in 1979 some examples of his painting, which were displayed in an 'alternative' Lower East Side gallery, were noticed by Henry Geldzahler (1935-94). The latter, a well-connected early observer of the contemporary art scene who had become curator of 20th Century Arts at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, was Commissioner of Cultural Affairs in the city. In the same year, Basquiat began making regular appearances on the live cable TV show TV Party hosted by Glenn O'Brien. He also co-founded the rock band Gray, which played in several notable nightspots. After being 'discovered' by Geldzahler and O'Brien, Basquiat starred in O'Brien's film Downtown 81, originally entitled New York Beat, and was introduced to Andy Warhol. He also participated in The Times Square Show, a group exhibition organized by Collaborative Projects Incorporated and Fashion Moda. In 1981 his painting was warmly reviewed in the influential magazine Art in America. In addition, he was the subject of Rene Ricard's profile The Radiant Child in Artforum magazine. Both these articles generated an enormous amount of additional publicity. The Basquiat Style of Painting By now, living in this intense atmosphere, Basquiat had developed his energetic and highly marketable brand of painting. Shocking, ugly, expressive, controversial, but nonetheless hugely 'visual', it was a melange of tribal art, ancient Egyptian motifs, street symbols, pictograms, logos, collage, text, 'found materials' and other junk art, as well as references derived from Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks and the Henry Dreyfuss Symbol Sourcebook. The overall message was suitably anti-bourgeois, anti-racist, anti-police, African-American and illustrated with iconographic imagery of black consciousness and the ghetto. As he became a celebrity and the pressure mounted on him to produce, he would fuel up with cocaine and marijuana, paint up to 18 hours in a row and then rely on heroin to get to sleep. In late 1981, Basquiat agreed terms with the Annina Nosei gallery in SoHo, Manhattan, and was soon showing regularly alongside the likes of well known contemporary artists like Francesco Clemente (b.1952), Julian Schnabel (b.1951), Enzo Cucchi (b.1949) and David Salle (b.1952). In Los Angeles, California, he was represented by the Larry Gagosian gallery, and in Europe by Bruno Bischofberger. He had a brief relationship with the young pop star Madonna and collaborated with both Andy Warhol and David Bowie. Photographs of the time show him working in $1,000 Armani suits, often splattered with paint. Around the beginning of 1986, Basquiat switched to the Mary Boone gallery in SoHo. In February of the same year, he appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in an article called "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist". Unfortunately, as his reputation rose, so did his consumption of narcotics. By the time Andy Warhol died in February 1987, Basquiat had become increasingly paranoid and unkempt, and his heroin addiction was running out of control. Despite attempts at rehab, he died of an overdose on August 12, 1988, at his art studio in Great Jones Street. |
|
|
|
|
The first significant exhibition devoted to Basquiat's life and works took place from October 1992 to February 1993 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. It then travelled to museums in Texas, Iowa, and Alabama (1993-1994). The exhibition catalog was a work of great scholarship and remains an important reference of Basquiat's art. Another major exhibition of Basquiat's work appeared March–June 2005 at the Brooklyn Museum. This too travelled subsequently to Los Angeles and Houston. Works by Basquiat can be seen in several of the best art museums across America, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Highest Prices For Paintings By Jean-Michel Basquiat • November 1998, Christie's sells
a Basquiat for $3,302,500. |
|
• For biographies of other postmodernist
artists, see: Famous Painters.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART |
