Basquiat, was born and raised in New York and began his career at sixteen painting street art. He eventually achieved megastar status as he gravitated to paintings and drawings on paper and canvas and discarded materials found around the city. Unfortunately, at the age of twenty-seven, he died of a drug overdose.
As you can see from the Wikipedia summary, his young life was troubled:
"His father, Gerard Basquiat, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and his mother, Matilde Basquiat, who was of Puerto Rican descent, was born in Brooklyn, New York. Matilde instilled a love for art in her young son by taking him to art museums in Manhattan and enrolling him as a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.[6][7] Basquiat was a precocious child who learned how to read and write by age four and was a gifted artist. His teachers, such as artist Jose Machado, noticed his artistic abilities, and his mother encouraged her son's artistic talent. By the age of 11, Basquiat could fluently speak, read and write French, Spanish and English.
In September 1968, when Basquiat was about 8, he was hit by a car while playing in the street. His arm was broken and he suffered several internal injuries, and he eventually underwent a splenectomy.[8] While he was recuperating from his injuries, his mother brought him the Gray's Anatomy book to keep him occupied. This book would prove to be influential in his future artistic outlook. His parents separated that year and he and his sisters were raised by their father.[6][9] 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.[10]When he was 11, his mother was committed to a mental institution and thereafter spent time in and out of institutions.[11] At 15, Basquiat ran away from home.[6][12] He slept on park benches in Tompkins Square Park, and was arrested and returned to the care of his father within a week.[6][13]Basquiat dropped out of Edward R. Murrow High School in the tenth grade. His father banished him from the household and Basquiat stayed with friends in Brooklyn. He supported himself by selling T-shirts and homemade post cards."
In September 1968, when Basquiat was about 8, he was hit by a car while playing in the street. His arm was broken and he suffered several internal injuries, and he eventually underwent a splenectomy.[8] While he was recuperating from his injuries, his mother brought him the Gray's Anatomy book to keep him occupied. This book would prove to be influential in his future artistic outlook. His parents separated that year and he and his sisters were raised by their father.[6][9] 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.[10]When he was 11, his mother was committed to a mental institution and thereafter spent time in and out of institutions.[11] At 15, Basquiat ran away from home.[6][12] He slept on park benches in Tompkins Square Park, and was arrested and returned to the care of his father within a week.[6][13]Basquiat dropped out of Edward R. Murrow High School in the tenth grade. His father banished him from the household and Basquiat stayed with friends in Brooklyn. He supported himself by selling T-shirts and homemade post cards."
"I don't think about art when I'm working.
I try to think about life"
The title of the exhibition is "Now's the Time" which has a dual significance. It is an homage to Charlie Parker and his 1925 composition of the same title and is the the title of his huge painting shaped like an LP record and made from materials found on the streets of New York.
Invoking those words also reminds us of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a Dream" speech where he used the phrase " Now's the time" as a call to action for equality. Race and class, power and identity were issues his large-scale paintings thrusts at our attention.
Basquiat uses a crude style - a mixture of images and texts that he painted and collaged. Drug abuse, bigotry, jazz, capitalism and mortality are his themes, with the pervasive undercurrent of racial and socioeconomic inequality. These themes are what make his work resonate now
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He was very involved in the cultural life of New York and often collaborated on music, film and fashion. Andy Warhol was a famous collaborator.
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| Win $1,000,000 Basquiat and Warhol |
Basquiat was very affected by the death of Michael Stewart - an artist, who was beaten by police for allegedly doing graffiti in the subway. He subsequently died.
" It could have been me. It could have been me." He later produced this painting which speaks very much to incidents with which we have become familiar today:
The paintings require time and thought. They are not easily accessible. I comfort myself with a quotation from Oscar Wilde: "The moment you understand a great work of art it's dead for you."
As a result I am going to watch this movie:
Four. One to throw bulbs against the wall, one to pile hundreds of them in a heap and spray-paint it orange, one to glue light bulbs to a cocker spaniel, and one to put a bulb in the socket and fill the room with light while all the critics and buyers are watching the fellow smashing the bulbs against the wall, the fellow with the spray-gun, and the cocker spaniel.