The Life of Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York to parents Gérard Basquiat and Matilde Andradas. Little did they know at the time that Jean-Michel Basquiat would soon go down as one of the most important contemporary painters continuing to leave a legacy for decades to come after his passing. Basquiat would live a difficult life and experience many hardships until he later dies of a heroin overdose, but what he experiences during his lifetime is what shaped the way Basquiat expressed himself through his art. Basquiat’s exceedingly personal and relatable art is what guided him to being such an influential artist. “His work is likely to remain for a long time as the modern picture of …show more content…
Jeans mother, Matilde who was of Puerto Rican heritage, encouraged Jean to create art and was very supportive and proud of the creative mind he already possessed at such a young age. Basquiat’s father however, who was of Haitian-American heritage, was very strict and wanted more from Basquiat, in order to set him up to become a successful man later in life. Because Jean-Michel Basquiat was of multiple heritages, he used that to his advantage later as inspiration for many of his pieces. For example, Jean-Michel Basquiat used his Haitian heritage as a conceptual theme in many of his pieces. When Basquiat was eight years old his parents’ marriage began to fall apart leading to a divorce. This divorce will later play a role in the way Basquiat expresses himself through his …show more content…
Jean-Michel Basquiat Samo. Created in 1980 in Manhattan, New York. Figure 2. Jean-Michel Basquiat Hollywood Africans. Created in 1983 in Los Angeles, California. In Hollywood Africans, there are many words that are crossed out, circled, or boxed. Basquiat’s explained his reasoning for doing this as: “I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.” This quote can relate to all of his work as each and every piece he created, was very obscure in it’s own way. After Jean-Michel Basquiat received acclimation from the public over his unique art, many young, creative and enthusiastic artists emerged beginning Neo-Expressionism, which means the new wild ones. Neo-expressionists would create pieces that incorporated objects we recognize and see on a daily basis such as people and animals in an abstract, yet stirring way. Neo-Expressionists would create with great emotion which could sometimes be in a turbulent manner which is what gives this type of art such meaning and why it caused such a great
Vincent Van Gogh is one of the world’s greatest and most well-known artists, but when he was alive he considered himself to be a complete failure. It was not until after he died that Van Gogh’s paintings received the recognition they deserved. Today he is thought to be the second best Dutch artist, after Rembrandt. Born in 1853, he was one of the biggest artistic influences of the 19th century. Vincent Van Gogh created a new era of art, he learned to use art to escape his mental illness, and he still continues to inspire artists over 100 years later.
Artists have a knowledge of all the artists that preceding them, creating a visual vocabulary from the art that they have seen and understand. For Jean-Michel Basquiat, that knowledge translates into his work, despite never having formal training in an art school. It is his awareness and understanding of the culture that surrounds him that brings a layer of sophistication to his painting, setting it apart from street graffiti that has been painted on canvas. Basquiat’s Untitled (Julius Caesar on Gold) (1981) is a confrontation of his own identity that is created with the visual vocabulary of artists that preceded him.
“A picture is a poem without words” – Horace, the purpose of art is to reveal the sensations of life but also allows humans to express their emotions and views on certain aspects. Jean-Michel Basquiat was a Neo-Expressionist painter throughout the 1980’s who was known for his style. He was African American artist and musician that was part of the SAMO. The SAMO was a graffiti group that wrote epigrams. While growing up, one of Basquiat inspirations that encouraged him to paint was his diverse cultural heritage. Basquiat was a creative self-taught artist who thought outside of the box when it came to painting. Most of the pieces he made were a collaboration of different ideas and constructed them together into a collage. During the 1980’s Basquiat’s art used the human figure to portray Minimalism and Conceptualism. His target market that were in many of his pieces was on suggestive dichotomies that focused on the lower class versus the higher class. Even though Basquiat work was remarkable, he was criticized and faced some challenges among his journey because of the symbols and words that were used his paintings. Despite the criticism,
Being the descendant of Haitian and Puerto Rican ancestry, Basquiat’s diverse culture is a main factor behind his creative tactics and his artwork. Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 22, 1960. His father was Haitian-American, Gerard Basquiat with an occupation of an accountant and his mother Matilde Basquiat was Puerto Rican
Basquiat’s artwork notary (1983) is full of symbolic text, codes and figurative elements that create a sense of rhythm that work on various levels to create meaning. In notary you can see American symbolism and Street slang mixed with references to history. the copyright symbol for instance is symbolic and links it back to his graffiti days. You can see the confidence in basquiat's work with the apparent random layers of the expressive spontaneous yet naive quality of the line of work. Notary draws us in with the scribbled words all over the artwork and leaves us guessing what the words means. The colours in basquiat's artwork represent anger, terror, fury and fear but there's also that slight element of hopefulness in his work.
Neo-Expressionism, an art movement that developed in the 1970s, is characterized by its abandonment of “Minimalist restraint and Conceptual coolness. [It] offered violent feeling expressed through previously taboo means-including gestural paint handling and allegory” (Neo-Expressionism). Jean-Michel Basquiat, a well-known Neo-Expressionist painter, explored a multitude of themes that interested him. The most prevalent were issues on race, culture, and heritage. During his 27 years of life, he was able to accurately represent the everyday struggle of the average African-American male while reforming the art industry, defying and accepting stereotypes, and depicting touchy themes of race in his visual art.
Throughout the 1980’s, the graffiti scene was very familiar with the name “Basquiat.” Jean-Michel Basquiat is an American graffiti artist who was born in Brooklyn, New York. His artwork is mostly defined as neo-expressionism with a bit of primitivism. His medium was usually a combination of oils, acrylics and spray cans. One could look at Basquiat’s pieces and say they are as if a child scribbled on a canvas, but to me, there is more than that. I admire Basquiat not for what he is, but for what he is not. I believe it requires a lot of bravery to showcase your art that is less than perfect as in the social standards for fine art. Basquiat did just that and was still well respected for it. I feel as if he conquered in keeping his childhood creativity
Georges Seurat was a French born artist born on December 2nd 1859 in Paris, Frrance. He study at École des Beaux-Art, which was one of the most prestige art schools in the world, which is also known for training many of the renounced artist we know. George Seurat left the École des Beaux-Art and began to work on his own; he began to visit impressionist exhibitions, where he gained inspiration from the impressionist painters, such as Claude Monet. Seurat also was interested in the science of art; he explored perception, color theory and the psychological effect of line and form. Seurat experimented with all the ideas he had gained, he felt the need to go beyond the impressionist style, he started to focus on the permanence of paintin...
Art is a very important part of humanity’s history, and it can be found anywhere from the walls of caves to the halls of museums. The artists that created these works of art were influenced by a multitude of factors including personal issues, politics, and other art movements. Frida Kahlo and Vincent van Gogh, two wildly popular artists, have left behind artwork, that to this day, influences and fascinates people around the world. Their painting styles and personal lives are vastly different, but both artists managed to capture the emotions that they were feeling and used them to create artwork.
The film Basquiat explores the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, a Haitian-Puerto Rican painting in New York City during the 1980s. Working closely with Andy Warhol, Basquiat was exploited for his unique “urban ghetto” graffiti and crude style of representation. Schnabel’s film further exploits this image of the painter, depicting him in various scenes of poverty and drug addiction, dirty poor love and desperation. Our understanding of the artist is framed by excerpts from essays by art critic Rene Ricard, depicted as a flaming homosexual who leeches off of his artistic friends. Ricard observes the hypocrisy and self-indulgence of the art scene that is vital to...
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist born in Brooklyn in 1960. His art focused on “suggestive dichotomies”, like integration versus segregation, wealth versus poverty, and inner versus outer experience. He used social commentary in his artwork in order to attack the power structures and racism in America. During his
He left high school early to sell sweatshirts and postcards with his artworks on. In 1980 after three years of hardship the fame train arrived for Basquiat. The public admired his style of infusing word, symbols, stick figures and animals. Basquiat’s fame came with a price.
At age 13 Le Corbusier had finished and left grade school to move on to attend Arts Decoratifs in his home city of La Chaux-de-Fonds. Here a young Le would learn the art of facing watches, just like his father, through enameling and engraving. While attending Arts Decoratifs Le Corbusier was under the influence of his teacher L’ Eplattenier who he would later refer to as his “Master” and only teacher. Under L’ Eplattenier’s instruction a young Le Corbusier would learn the history of art, drawing and the naturalistic attributes of newly developed art. With his in depth teachings of art Le Corbusier soon abandoned his previous career of watch making and further continued his education in decoration and art intending to eventually...
People decided to rebel against the political and social rules of their time and started a new trend of art. It conveyed dramatic subjects perceived with strong feelings and imagination.
Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French Impressionist whose works included; Bathers at Asnieres, Circus, Eiffel Tower, Gray weather, and his most notable and largest piece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.