Jean-Michel Basquiat

        I recently watched Downtown 81, a film featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat, chronicling the early 80's downtown NY art and music scene. While I had trouble staying 100% involved with the film, it gives a really interesting taste of not only the scene but also of Basquiat's personality.
        When I was little, my dad's parents had a small collection of children's books in their family room for me and my cousins to read, and I only remember three of them. One was a pop-up murder mystery book that had three different endings, one was a very strange Dr. Seuss book that I can't for the life of me remember the title of, only that it involved travel and extremely odd creatures (it was not Oh the Places You'll Go), and the third was the illustrated version of Maya Angelou's poem Life Doesn't Frighten Me. This one I had completely forgotten about until watching the film, but immediately remembered being transfixed by Basquiat's odd paintings.

        Cut short at the young age of 28 (only eight years after he began to gain recognition), Basquiat was not only an amazing artist, but an important person in art history.
        His paintings are absolutely beautiful, but also erratic in a nature that perhaps reflected Basquait himself, who was addicted to drugs and a few years before his death described as "increasingly paranoid". His images are extremely dense, often with scribbled text, skeletal figures and collage (though, two years before his death his style changed to figures on plainer backgrounds, which is attributed to his being inspired by close friend Warhol as well as a reflection of the stark reality of his addictions).
        In any case, Basquiat's paintings speak much more clearly about not only themselves but Basquiat himself than I can, so I strongly urge you to take a look at them if you are not already familiar with his work. And if you're interested in the world he was inspired by (in 1980-81) and a glimpse of his personality, check out Downtown 81 (which if you have netflix is currently available on instant view).



images: amazon.com & brooklynmuseum.org