BASQUIAT

There have been more books written, more magazine articles and even movies made about him than any other. His works have garnished the highest prices at auction and continue to climb yearly. He is in the private collections of famous and noted collectors like Vegas luminary Steve Wynn and designer Valentino.  He is a pivotal figure in the history of art and culture. His importance continues to be debated, his worth reviewed. Artist Jean- Michel Basquiat was known and peer to the greats of his time. He was admired and sometimes ignored as well.

He was also African American and among all artist of African descent he was and at this time is “The Greatest”. It is easy to make the comparison to sports figures like Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and most importantly Jackie Robinson. He was the “Jackie Robinson” of the art world. Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley and Wangechi Mutu have directly benefited from his presence and accomplishments. Kerry James Marshall, Martin Puryear and Sam Gilliam to a lesser but still major degree are benefactors of the Basquiat legacy.

I was introduced to Jean-Michel in an article written by Susie Gablick in “Art in America”. She was writing about the surge in presence and price of graffiti artists on the New York and world art scene. This was a fascinating article featuring Keith Haring along with Basquiat and other rising stars exhibiting at Fashion Moda. This was in the early Nineteen Eighties and I knew these were artist with a lot of potential and they were to be watched.

I would keep an eye on these guys and see how they developed. The next piece I read on Basquiat; a year or so later was an extended article and spread in Warhol’s “Interview”. It seemed that Warhol had taken a personal and professional interest in Basquiat and was promoting him. Basquiat had become at least for the moment an insider and very fashionable.  What seemed like an incredibly short time later (still the Nineteen Eighties) I read something on the cover of “Vanity Fair” about the death of a young   artist. I open the magazine to find the photographic portrait of Basquiat by James Van Der Zee. How could he be gone so soon? The impossible is not always so impossible. Basquiat was twenty seven and his career had lasted less than a decade.

In death Basquiat has collaborated with Maya  Angelou on a children’s book and was the subject of Julian Schnabel’s directorial debut in film. He has been the featured artist of major retrospectives and documentaries. His works are represented in the permanent collections of many of the world’s great museums.

The artist that once courted Madonna is now suitor to eternity. As he told his father” Papa… I’m going to be famous” fulfilled his childhood prophesy within a brief time and with many works. The legend, the mystique, the life has grown over the years; as it should.
We will wonder about what might have been for Jean-Michel and ourselves in turn. We will celebrate and marvel at the brilliance of what remains and at what once was.

Jerome Schlomoff  (c) 1988 Paris

                                                                                         1960 - 1988

Halloween

 

                                                                                                  

                                                                                    

A sacred night

Something of fright

A creaky floor

A slamming door

The blowing leaves

I do believe

Black Widows weave

All Hallows Eve

Bats in Bristol, bones in bags

Muses, minstrels, monster mags

A dance of death

A witch’s face

The children run

Keep up the pace

No time to loose

No time to waste

The zombie's  hair

all stuck with paste

The row men row

Against the wind

Don’t look; don’t worry

It's here again

No fear of death

It’s Sting rebuked

The Song of Solomon

The book of Luke

 

We know there’s more

But here today

We celebrate our special way

A sleeper, a keeper

Both darker and deeper

A crawler and creeper

Who laugh at the reaper

                                                      

                                                                                                             2010

The Nocturnes

The artist made famous by his “Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother” (Better known as “Whistler’s Mother”) was a painter of nocturnes. Frederic Remington painted haunting, intriguing, mysterious nocturnes as did Van Gogh. What is “The Starry Night “if not a nocturne. Vincent did many other brilliant night scenes as well. The night is a fascinating time to many artists.

There is nothing as seductive, sublime or beautiful as the night.  Paul Williams expressed a sense of awe and love for the night when he wrote the lyric “What’s so amazing that keeps us star gazing?” In that continual spirit of wonder I choose to look at the night sky as often as I can. We don’t know exactly why we are fascinated even comforted by the sight of the stars and the moon. Often we are prividgled to see the moon accented with a cluster of clouds in a unique arrangement.



These natural compositions sometimes lasting so briefly that they are gone in seconds never to be repeated in exactly the same pattern again. I do know that just looking up and out at the heavens can relax and renew the spirit. Yes Paul; it is still amazing. Perhaps it is the possibility of seeing something never seen before; something that at the same time has been seen and shared by every human being that does compel us.

Within the last few years I have painted a series of works that are exclusively black and white and are nocturnes of a sort.  There is a paring down to basics in using black and white exclusively that gives a kind of purity and even sacredness to the work. The essence of all painting can be found in the interplay of light and dark. The technique is identical in a black and white piece; there is simply the lack of color. Ansel Adams created his “Zone System” for rating a black and white photograph. He believed every good photograph had every tone ranging from a pure or complete black to complete white while including every gray in between.   I’m   attempting to do a similar thing with my nocturnes. 

I was showing recently in a group exhibition where I displayed all black and white paintings and black sculptures. A woman remarked to her companion as they passed my work “Well; Picasso had his Blue Period…” I can take that kind of assessment.

The reflection of traffic and neon light on dark wet pavement during or just after a rain storm is as spectacular and nuanced as any light show in any venue you would want to see. The night cafes, bars and theatres and those travelers that are their patrons continue to color the night and make it unique. The night offers much to those that embrace it whole heartedly or even occasionally. It is a gift and a necessity as is the day. The balance of light and dark is essential to life and to works of art.

The night is not just a time of the gothic or horror but a time of quiet and reflection. In painting an opportunity   to depict not only light but a surprising vastness of shadows within the darkness, depth and distance.