Jean-Michel Basquiat

By: Marlena Lash Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) Readers of my presentation should know that there are two contemporary Graffiti artworks (especially Figure 3) I’ve included that may be disturbing to some people. These images include references to George Floyd’s death, and since I know that it’s a pretty recent event, I thought I would let everyone know in advance. This is an important topic to voice, but it is also a hard topic to acknowledge. I hope that by including this painting in my presentation, it will help my fellow students remain aware of the issues that the world is facing and how movements, such as Black Lives Matter, can affect the world in a positive way. Facts about Jean-Michel Basquiat

Who was Jean-Michel Basquiat, you might ask? Basquiat was born in Brooklyn in 1960 and raised by a middle class Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother. He was a famous self-taught artist during the 1980s. His art included pieces in such styles as Graffiti, Primitivism, and Neo-Expressionism. There were a lot of people who viewed him as “being born famous;” the truth is, he had to work incredibly hard to become well-known. When he was younger, he and a friend signed their work with the same abbreviation, SAMO. SAMO came into play when they were both 17 years old. Later on, he and his friend drifted apart but Basquiat kept the name and kept signing some of his later artwork using the same name. Struggles

People have to deal with struggles their whole life, but it’s how they deal with such struggles that should determine our judgement of them. Jean-Michel Basquiat quit school, used drugs, and became paranoid, isolating himself from the world for long stretches of time. These were some of the struggles he had to deal with. What matters is how he dealt with those challenges. He overcame his struggles by creating art and expressing himself through his artwork. If you look further into his body of work, it tends to allow for a lot of personalized and subjective readings. We see this by observing his unique style in his paintings.

Let’s start by comparing Basquiat’s style from the 1980s with Graffiti Art from 2020

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Pretty distinctive, isn’t it? Fig. 1: Jean-Michel Basquiat US Pop Art-Oil Graffiti, 1988 Some of his signature symbols which include a crown, a dog, a skeleton and words mixed with imagery, are included in his other pieces of artwork. This makes his style unique in comparison to other artists work. Fig. 2: SAMO Does Not Cause Cancer In Laboratory Animals, 1980

This is a popular painting of his when he and his two friends painted it. They would paint it in secret on the side of Manhattan buildings in the 1970s and 1980s. What’s really interesting is that they would paint the title of the work directly on the building. Fig. 3: I Can’t Breathe, 2020

This is the figure I warned everyone about at the beginning of the presentation. This shows George Floyd’s death, and in clear English, it has the last words of his life, “I can’t breathe.” Even though this was a tragic part of so many of our lives, it is important to know, because it inspired one of the biggest social justice movements in our history, the Black Lives Matter movement. Fig. 4: Time to Change the World, 2020

This painting represents part of the Black Lives Matter movement. To the far left, there is a picture of Vladimir Lenin, who was a communist Russian leader. The next person on the left is Martin Luther King who stood up for Native American rights. Right in the middle we have George Floyd. To the right, it shows Malcolm X. Last but not least, we have Angela Davis. Each of these people had some way of affecting the lives of Native Americans. Fig. 5: Bird on Money, 1981

Bird on Money pays tribute to jazz musician Charlie Parker, who Basquiat idolised. This was an abstract Neo-Expressionism piece of art. The subject of his artwork is a chicken or a yard bird, in reference to Parker’s known nickname. The words “PARA MORIR” in the painting translate to “To Die”. The words “GREEN WOOD” refer to Basquiat’s birthplace, which later will become his final resting place, too Fig. 6: Untitled (Skull), 1981

Untitled (Skull) was created in 1981 when Basquiat was 20 years old. It was presented in his debut solo gallery exhibition in New York City. Even though most of his individual artworks were created within a few days, he laboured over this painting for months. This work was most likely influenced by the pressure of becoming commercially successful. The allusion to the skull being dead and alive at the same time is in line with Basquiat’s recurring theme of suggestive dichotomies shown in many of his other pieces of artwork. Fig. 7: Untitled (Devil), 1982

The painting - most commonly known as “Devil” - is a good example of how Basquiat uses color, lines, and imagery to portray a lot of different energies we can all relate to. Perhaps the portrayal of the devil is supposed to represent how there is a little bit of the devil within all of us. Video of the painting named Devil Conclusion

After going through my slides, I hope you’ve learned more about Jean-Michel Basquiat, but I also hope that you’ve realized that there are many street artists still out there (especially in 2020) trying to get their messages heard.

Even though we see a lot of differences between the Graffiti Art of the 1980s and that of the present day, it doesn’t mean that one or the other is less meaningful.

There have been a lot of Black Lives Matter Graffiti paintings because the effects of racism have been on many people’s minds. There tends to be a story behind each painting on who the artist is and what they believe in. Image List

Fig. 1: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jean-Michel Basquiat US Pop Art-Oil Graffiti, (1988)

Fig. 2: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Samo Does Not Cause Cancer in Laboratory Animals, (1980)

Fig. 3: Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun, Untitled (George Floyd Mural), from the wall of a house ruin, Binnish District, Idlib Province, Syria, (2020)

Fig. 4: Jorit Agoch, Untitled (Time To Change The World), (2020)

Fig. 5: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bird on Money, (1981)

Fig. 6: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Skull), (1981)

Fig. 7: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Devil), (1982) Bibliography

Biography. com Editors. “Jean-Michel Basquiat Biography.” A&E Television Networks, Biography, 1 April 2014, https://www.biography.com/artist/jean-michel-basquiat.

McGreevy, Nora. “How Jean-Michel Basquiat and His Peers Made Graffiti Mainstream.” Smart News,

Smithsonian Magazine, 3 November 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-basquiat-and-his-peers-brought-graffiti-art-world-180976189/.

Metcalf, Stephen. “The Enigma of the Man Behind the $110 Million Painting.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media

Company, 6 July 2018, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/jean-michel-basquiat-artist-or-celebrity/561728/.

Miller, Marc H. and Paul Tschinkel. “No. 19 (YOUNG EXPRESSIONISTS)” and “No. 21 (GRAFFITI/POST

GRAFFITI).” Video segments from the Art/new york Series, Inner-Tube Video, 29 November 2020, Patti

Astor, Fab 5 Freddy, Jean Michel Basquiat- Art in the Streets - MOCAtv Ep. 18 - YouTube.

As seen on the YouTube channel of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.