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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 souled
born in 1960 to a haitian father and a
puerto rican mother basquiat spent his
childhood making art and mischief in
borum 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 basia
when young jean-michel 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 artsy 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 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 tucson lover chore versus
seven arola 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 campuses 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
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