Title: Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation

Type: Segment Subject(s): Museum Exhibit Project Contact: Name: Robert Judge Company: WGBH Email: [email protected] Original Broadcast/Publish Date: 10/23/2020 Runtime: 00:04:56 Main Asset File Size: 1.9 GB Short Description: A look at the exhibition, “Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation” at the MFA Long Description: A look at the exhibition, “Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation” at the MFA

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Media Rights: Please refer to the MMG Arts Initiative Agreement for full rights information. Sensitive Material: N/A Special Instructions: N/A File Clean of Graphics: Yes Language English Embed Code: WWW.MFA.ORG

Lower Thirds

TC In Lower Third In Cue 00:00:27 Liz Munsell He often gets Contemporary Art Curator, MFA 00:01:50 Greg Tate There's a lot of chaos... Co-curator, Writing the Future Production Credits: Executive Editor/Arts: Jared Bowen Executive Producer: Delores Edwards Associate Producer: Rory Sheil Production Manager: Bob Judge Videographer: Howard Powell Editor: Rob Fagnant Photo credits: The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Trust for African Rock Art William Coupon Cold Open ARTIST JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT AND THE HIP HOP GENERATION THAT GRABBED HOLD OF THE ART WORLD.

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Lead IN THE LATE 1970S AND EARLY 80S, A GROUP OF ARTISTS MOVED FROM THE STREETS OF NEW YORK, WHERE THEIR CANVASES WERE SUBWAY CARS AND BRICK WALLS, TO THE TONY CONFINES OF EXCLUSIVE ART GALLERIES. IN A NEW EXHIBITION, THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS CHARTS THE COURSE OF ARTIST JEAN- MICHEL BASQUIAT AND THE HIP-HOP GENERATION. Tag WRITING THE FUTURE: BASQUIAT AND THE HIP-HOP GENERATION IS ON VIEW THROUGH MAY 16TH. Transcript Blazing off the walls of the Museum of Fine Arts—the massive paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat. He was a New York street artist of the 1970s and 80s who became a darling of the art world. Three years ago one of his paintings sold for more than 100-million dollars at auction. Legend, icon, maverick. He bore all the crowns so frequently depicted in his work before his young, untimely death. //SOT// 1:16:26 Liz Munsell/Contemporary art curator, MFA “He often gets uh described as the kind of sole Black genius artistically of the time. And what we're trying to show is that he absolutely was incredibly genius artist, but he was surrounded by his peers who were on a similar journey with him and had the same mission.” Track This new exhibition at the MFA is the first to examine Basquiat and his fellow artists in the Hip-Hop Generation who changed the chemistry and sound of New York. //NATS// Rammellzee And Shock Dell At The Amphitheatre (Freestyle and Breakdancing video) Track Rammellzee [#112]. Fab 5 Freddy [#161]. Basquiat. They were among a crop of fresh-faced art world outsiders from marginalized communities. But, they made New York theirs says co-curator Liz Munsell. //SOT// 1:01:44 Liz Munsell “They came from many different boroughs, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx. And then they began to converge downtown. They were getting a little bit older and they saw this incredible scene of 1980s creatives, people like Madonna around. And they became part of this club scene.” Track But before that, they were labeled graffiti artists—hunted down by police for tagging buildings and a most prized canvas—the New York City subway. //NATS// Entry way film Track Painting subway cars guaranteed their

2 / 4 work would be seen by thousands of people as trains raced throughout the city. //SOT// 29:00 Greg Tate/Co-curator, Writing the Future “There’s a lot of chaos for the eye to see every day.” Track Writer and musician Greg Tate is the show’s co-curator. He knew most of the artists featured here when they all began to mix with performers, filmmakers and musicians in New York’s downtown scene. //NATS// Rapture //SOT// 34:10 Tate “This is a youth movement//And in America, youth is everything. // So whoever is leading that charge is going to win.” Track What the outsiders called graffiti, the artists simply called writing. A form Basquiat noted had dated to ancient times [African Rock Art] and what artist Lady Pink [#143] said was like calligraphy. But it was all a language the artists shared. //SOT// 05:50 Munsell “[#71]Abstracting it, coding it, crossing it out, // They really um, in the vein of hip hop music, are incorporating really whatever they can get their hands on and very freely in an unfiltered way, getting all of that into their canvases and works in other media.” Track But these artists wanted off the streets and into the galleries. They demanded they be heard and seen. The art world took notice and in the U.S., two of them, Keith Haring [# 137giant pink columns] and Basquiat rocketed into the stratosphere. //NATS// 02:15:47 “I could see the handwriting on the wall. It was mine. I've made my mark in the world. and it's made its mark on me.” Track [#101 Untitled]. Basquiat’s work was fueled by his interest in history. Not to mention the years of museum visits he’d made with his mother while growing up. [#10 Notebook] He charted his thoughts in notebooks. //SOT// 1:36:00 Tate “I went to party in to one party at his house once and um, you know, walk to um walk past his bedroom on the way to the loo. //There was um like a video of Superfly that was on and then um, you know, in all these art books stacked up. So when he wasn't painting, you know, he was in there just, you know, studying the artists he liked.” Track [#99 Famous Moon King] Basquiat’s work is also often populated by random bits of anatomy. When he was seven, he was hospitalized after a car accident and developed a fascination with the book Grey’s Anatomy. [#71 or others] But it’s this crown that is most ubiquitous in his work. //SOT// 1:48:50

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Tate “He said, my my work is about three things. Royalty, heroism, and the streets, right? So he was also someone who had gone to all the major galleries and museums and didn't see any black people represented there.//1:51:15// He’s letting you know that his royalty is street royalty.” Track That reign would extend into the art world where Basquiat achieved superstardom. But in 1988, he died of a drug overdose. He was only 27, but he’d managed to see his community of artists get their due. And beyond that, says Liz Munsell, they began to influence the A-List artists they fought to be alongside. //SOT// 1:20:30 Munsell “Frank Stella, you can you can see his referencing. And he also he also notes that he was looking at graffiti and trying to find a different surface for his painting in his late 80s works.” Track It was a hard fought acceptance. And for it, this singular group of artists hang together still.