BASQUIAT

During the period of the 1970’s and 1980’s, New York City emerged as a global epicenter for arts and culture, a crucible for creativity that produced revolutionary cultural moments. A complex interplay of severe economic stagnation, (massive migration to the suburbs producing a significant loss of public sector jobs and tax revenues) rising food and energy prices, (exacerbated by the end of the Nixon wage-price controls program and an Arab oil-producing embargo) high rates of crime, (a murder rate that was three times what it is today, violent street gangs and rampant muggings on the subway) a health crisis (the AIDS crisis began in the late 1970’s) all played out against the backdrop of blackouts in the city and region (most significantly by “The Night of Terror” blackout in July 1977 when power went out in all NYC’s five boroughs caused by lightning strikes.)

In this period, a counterculture emerged when youth rejected social norms in identity, sexuality, dress and the arts. Then the counterculture attention on racial, ethnic and political injustices was largely absorbed by the mainstream leaving a lasting impact on politics, philosophy, morality, alternative health and diet. Music and art, in particular, shared a common language of expression to communicate thoughts, emotions and narratives of individual emotional depth.

A seismic shift occurred in American popular culture in the 1970’s that has reverberated even to this day. Hip Hop started in August 1970 in the Bronx, New York. Around that time, punk rock also emerged as a rejection to the corporate nature of mainstream rock music. With the rise of MTV and the internet, artists in both genres could share their music and connect with fans worldwide.

Midtown Manhattan was the location of Studio 54, the epitome of the disco music culture known for the extravagant parties filled with celebrity guests. It was also the location of Andy Warhol’s Factory. And then there was that roughly one square mile in Lower Manhattan that changed the way we think about music, art and performance.

The East Village and the Lower East Side was pulsing with the raw energy of the hip hop and punk rock scene. Legendary clubs like CBGB featured Blondie, Talking Heads, Patti Smith and the Ramones. Danceteria featured live music with Madonna before she became famous. Paradise Garage influenced dance music and the DJ culture, particularly house music, with the iconic DJ Larry Levan.

These striking musical personalities expressed youthful rebellion through distinctive styles of clothing such as T-shirts with offensive graphics, leather jackets, jewelry studded with spiked accents and mohawk hairstyles became cross cultural phenomenons. Their musical expression was characterized by highly distorted power chords and snarling vocals rather than the conventional vocalizing of Simon and Garfunkel.

In this early 1980’s milieu, Jean-Michel Basquiat,  part Haitian, part Puerto Rican, obviously scruffy, smart and undeniably charismatic graffiti artist without any formal training, was making waves in the downtown art scene. The gritty landscape was perfect for his highly expressionistic work that mixed graffiti with the intuitive approach of Abstract Expressionism. Ironically, Basquiat never considered himself a graffiti artist even though he became known for his political-poetical graffiti under the name of SAMO (a collaboration he had with a schoolmate, Al Diaz.) He drew on random objects and surfaces, including other people’s clothing.

In December 1978, The Village Voice, a weekly alternative newspaper known especially for its coverage of the arts and entertainment, published an article about the SAMO graffiti. When Basquiat and Diaz had a falling out in 1980, Basquiat inscribed “SAMO IS DEAD” on the walls of buildings in downtown Manhattan. This was the year of his continuous rise to fame in the traditional art world. Around this time, Basquiat lived in the East Village and was producing postcards with a friend for sale. While he was selling postcards, he spotted Andy Warhol at a restaurant with the art critic Henry Geldzahler. Basquiat sold a postcard to Warhol titled “Stupid Games, Bad Ideas”.

Basquiat participated in a multi-artist exhibition called “The Times Square Show” and was noticed by various critics and curators including Jeffrey Deitch. Deitch mentioned him in “Report from Times Square), in the September 1980 issue of Art in America.

Basquiat sold his first painting, “Cadillac Moon” in 1981 to Debbie Harry, lead singer for the punk rock band Blondie, for $200. He also appeared in the Blondie music video “Rapture”. Also that year, he was invited by art dealer Annina Nosei to join her gallery and she provided him with materials and a space to work in the gallery basement. He had his first American one-man show at the Annina Nosei Gallery in March 1982. Also that year, he moved into a loft which also served as a studio at 101 Crosby Street in SoHo, downtown NYC.

1982 was an auspicious year for the artist. He left the Annina Nosei Gallery and gallerist Bruno Bischofberger became his worldwide dealer. Bischofberger gave Basquiat a one-man show at his Zurich gallery, September 1082. He arranged for him to meet Warhol for lunch in October 1982. Warhol recalled, “I took a Polaroid and he went home and within two hours a painting was back, still wet, of him and me together.”

The painting, “Dos Cabezas” (1982) ignited a friendship that resulted in a collaboration over two years that produced more than 150 works. “Dos Cabezas” sold at Christie’s for over $7M. A most notable work was “Untitled” (1984).

In November of 1982, Basquiat’s solo exhibition opened at the Fun Gallery in NYC’s East Village. A March, 1983 show quickly followed at the Gagosian Gallery in West Hollywood. He was accompanied by his girlfriend, then unknown singer Madonna who he described as “going to be huge.”

While in Los Angeles, Basquiat visited the artist Robert Rauschenberg and was profoundly inspired by the artist’s spontaneous, deeply personal expression especially in the freedom expressed in his technique which was characterized by a wide range of mediums (incorporation of everyday objects and materials) that blurred the distinction between painting and sculpture. “In Bed” (1955) was a typical example, a wall-mounted board covered with a pillow and patchwork quilt marked with graphite and paint. Rauschenberg challenged the traditional boundaries of art with his blended materials and methods.

Basquiat often painted portraits of graffiti artists. “Hollywood Africans” (1983) portrays him with graffiti artists Toxic and Rammellzee. That same year, he produced a hip-hop record “Beat Bop” featuring Rammellzee and rapper K-Rob. Basquiat created the cover art for the single, making it highly desirable among record and art collectors.

Upon returning to NYC in 1983, Basquiat joined Mary Boone’s influential SoHo gallery. His first show there in May 1984 featured a major work in his career, “Grazing/Soup to Nut” (1983) and several paintings, e.g., “Bird as Buddha”, “Eye” and “Untitled (Africa)”.

 

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Basquiat worked with Andy Warhol for two years, 1984-1985. The collaboration was notable because it brought together two very distinct artistic styles, Warhol’s pop art sensibilities with its clean, repetitive imagery and Basquiat’s raw, expressive graffiti-inspired work. A dynamic visual dialogue erupted where each artist influenced the other, often layering their unique techniques onto the same canvas resulting in highly individualist and compelling artwork. When they collaborated, Warhol would start with something concrete or a recognizable image that Basquiat would subsequently alter in his animated style. “Olympics” (1984) and “Taxi, 45 th /Broadway (1984-85) are noteworthy examples.

Basquiat was astute when it came to publicity. He was particularly aware of the exploitative nature of the art industry and the pressures of being a black man in the white-dominated art world. He often painted in expensive Armani suits and appeared in public in the same paint-splattered clothes. He frequented New York hot spots like Palladium and Area nightclubs and sometimes worked the turntables as a DJ. He appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in 1985 in a feature entitled “New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist.” He was also featured in GQ and Esquire magazines and walked the runway for a Comme des Garcons fashion show. The recognition he was receiving was a double-edged sword.

In the mid-1980’s, he was earning over $1M a year and receiving additional funds from art dealers. In spite of his success, his emotional instability continued to haunt him. The more money he made, the more paranoid he became from excessive drug use; heroin and especially cocaine.

1986 was a frenetic year for the artist. He went to Los Angeles for his last exhibition on the West Coast at the Gagosian Gallery in January. In February, he was in Atlanta for an exhibition of his drawings at the Fay Gold Gallery. In that month, he also participated in an “Art Against Apartheid” benefit. In the summer, he had a solo exhibition in Salzburg and walked the runway for Rei Kawakubo. In November, at 25 years old, Basquiat became the youngest artist to exhibit at Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover, Germany.

1987 was a point of transition for Basquiat. He went in and abruptly out of a methadone program for heroin addiction in Manhattan and became basically a recluse. Drug use escalated and depression over the unexpected death of his friend Andy Warhol were contributing factors.

He travelled to Paris and Dusseldorf, among other places, for scheduled exhibitions. When he returned to NYC, he crossed paths with Keith Haring and Haring related that it was the only time Basquiat ever discussed his drug problem.

Despite numerous attempts at sobriety, Jean-Michel Basquiat died on August 18th 1988 of a heroin overdose at his home on Great Jones Street in Manhattan. The funeral was attended by immediate family and close friends. Keith Haring created the painting “A Pile of Crowns for Jean-Michel Basquiat” in his memory. Haring wrote an obituary in Vogue magazine. He stated, “He truly created a lifetime of works in ten years. Greedily, we wonder what else he might have created, what masterpieces we have been cheated out of by his death, but the fact is that he has created enough work to intrigue generations to come. Only now will people begin to understand the magnitude of his contribution.”

Shortly after his death, The New York Times indicated that Basquiat was “the most famous of only a small number of young black artists who have achieved national recognition.

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s canon revolves around single heroic figures: athletes, kings, warriors, policemen, musicians and the artist himself. The head is often the central iconographic focus of the images to convey complex ideas, themes or subjects that are important to different cultures. He topped the heads with halos and crowns representing an exalted intellect that is privileged over the physical body. He mixed his contemporary critique with poetry, drawing and painting to comment on historical context.

In his short but prolific career, Basquiat produced around 1,500 drawings, around 600 paintings and numerous sculpture and mixed media works. He drew in many different media, most commonly ink, pencil, felt-tip or marker and oil-stick

The art historian Fred Hoffman theorizes that Basquiat’s self-identification 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 act.”

Art critic Rene Ricard wrote in his 1981 article, “The Radiant Child”: “I’m always amazed at how people come up with things. Like Jean-Michel. How did he come up with the words he puts all over everything, his way of making a point without overstating the case, using one or two words he reveals a political acuity, gets the viewer going in the direction he wants. One or two words containing a full body. What he incorporates into his pictures, whether found or made, is specific and selective. He has a perfect idea of what he’s getting across, using everything that collates to his vision.”