The chaotic brilliance of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat - Jordana Moore Saggese
A sky blue canvas ripped open
by an enormous skull.
Teeth bared through visceral slashes
of oil and spray-paint.
In 2017,
this untitled artwork was auctioned
off for over 110 million dollars.
But it’s not the work of some old master.
These strokes of genius
belong to 21 year old
black Brooklynite Jean-Michel Basquiat –
one of America’s most
charismatic painters,
and currently, its highest sold.
Born in 1960 to a Haitian father
and a Puerto Rican mother,
Basquiat spent his childhood making art
and mischief in Boerum Hill.
While he never attended art school,
he learned by wandering
through New York galleries,
and listening to the music
his father played at home.
He drew inspiration from
unexpected places,
scribbling his own versions of cartoons,
comic books and biblical scenes
on scrap paper from his father’s office.
But it was a medical encyclopedia
that arguably
exerted the most powerful
influence on Basquiat.
When young Jean-Michael was hit by a car,
his mother brought a copy of
"Grey’s Anatomy" to his hospital bed.
It ignited a lifelong fascination
with anatomy
that manifested in the skulls,
sinew and guts of his later work –
which frequently explores both the power
and vulnerability of marginalized bodies.
By 17, he launched his first foray into
the art world with his friend Al Diaz.
They spray painted cryptic statements
and symbols all over Lower Manhattan,
signed with the mysterious moniker SAMO.
These humorous, profound,
and rebellious declarations
were strategically scattered
throughout Soho’s art scene.
And after revealing himself as the artist,
Basquiat leveraged SAMO’s success
to enter the scene himself;
selling postcards, playing clubs with
his avant-garde band,
and boldly seeking out his heroes.
By 21, he’d turned to painting full time.
His process was a sort of
calculated improvisation.
Like Beat writers
who composed their work by shredding
and reassembling scraps of writing,
Basquiat used similar cut-up techniques
to remix his materials.
When he couldn't afford canvases,
he fashioned them out of discarded
wood he found on the street.
He used oil stick, crayons,
spray paint and pencil
and pulled quotes from the menus,
comic books and textbooks
he kept open on the studio floor.
He kept these sources open
on his studio floor,
often working on multiple
projects at once.
Pulling in splintered anatomy,
reimagined historical scenes,
and skulls transplanted from
classical still-lives,
Basquiat repurposed both present day
experiences and art history
into an inventive visual language.
He worked as if inserting himself into
the legacy of artists he borrowed from,
producing collages that were just as
much in conversation with art history
as they were with each other.
For instance,
"Toussaint L’Overture versus Savonarola"
and "Undiscovered Genius of the
Mississippi Delta"
offer two distinct visions of Basquiat’s
historical and contemporary concerns.
But they echo each other in the details,
such as the reappearing head that
also resurfaces in "PPCD."
All these pieces form a network
that offers physical evidence
of Basquiat’s restless and prolific mind.
These chaotic canvases won
rapid acclaim and attention.
But despite his increasingly
mainstream audience,
Basquiat insisted on depicting
challenging themes
of identity and oppression.
Marginalized figures take center stage,
such as prisoners, cooks and janitors.
His obsession with bodies, history,
and representation
can be found in works evoking the
Atlantic slave trade and African history,
as well as pieces focusing on
contemporary race relations.
In less than a decade,
Basquiat made thousands of
paintings and drawings-
along with sculpture, fragments
of poetry and music.
His output accelerated alongside
his meteoric rise to fame,
but his life and work were
cut tragically short
when he died from a drug overdose
at the age of 27.
After his death,
Basquiat’s work only increased in value-
but the energy and flair of his pieces
have impacted much more than their
financial worth.
Today, his influence swirls around us in
music, poetry, fashion and film-
and his art retains the power to
shock, inspire, and get under our skin.
