I have never
known an artist that didn’t have something to say. At the very core of it all it’s
communication that is the thing. The form can be dance, sculpture, music, or
quilting…on and on. There is something of a story, a narrative, and some
explanation, a dissection of every element of any and every work. The graffiti
artist is among the greatest exponents of this idea and it is essential to the
form. “Look at me through my work, I have a message, I have a story, I am here
and I matter.”
Jean-Michel
Basquiat spoke cryptically and expressively first on walls and shortly
following on canvases. He was somewhat shy but he expressed himself eloquently
and poignantly in his spoken words. His thoughts and commentaries are now
collected in book form “Basquiat-isms” edited by Larry Warsh. It is certainly
of interest to his admirers across the globe. It is an excellent collection of
the voicings he imparted within his short but all so vastly incredible life.
In his brief twenty-seven year life Basquiat went from poverty and complete obscurity with such a meteoric progression that it could easily be referenced to as “over-night success.” It was really by no means so, as it unfolded in reality, referenced as so easily a thing as it might appear. It was however methodically planned, executed and created by his sheer will, determination and profuse understanding of the then (nineteen-eighties) New York art scene. It was no done without a measure of difficulty. Basquiat went from graffiti bomber (SAMO) to gallery representation to collected and sought out phenomenon, to now canonization. The book “Basquiat-isms” is a representation of this. It can inform, entertain, amuse and on occasion baffle you. I have sampled it here. Do enjoy and hopefully choose to seek it out for it’s entirety.
Quotes & Illustrations
"I like to have information rather than just a brushstroke. Just to have words to put in feelings."
Jean-Michel Basquiat
“I don’t think about
art when I work. I think about life.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
"Magic doesn’t especially
Interest me. I like the intuition that tells me a work is finished."
I was trying to
communicate an idea. I was trying to paint an urban landscape. I was trying to
make paintings different from painting that I saw which were mostly minimal
that were highbrow and alienating.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
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Jean-Michel Basquiat
"I like words that jump off the page when I see them."
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat
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"The more I paint
the more I like everything."
Jean-Michel Basquiat
"Since I was 17, I
thought I might be a star."
"I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them."
Jean-Michel Basquiat
"I think I make
art for myself, but ultimately I think I make it for the world."
Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Other artist in this series include: Ai Weiwei, Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Keith Haring and Futura -
