Jean Michel Basquiat Visual Codes

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Question: Investigate how Basquiat uses visual codes and symbols to communicate his intentions in a visual language. Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist who was born in brooklyn and died in NoHo. He emerged in New York as a gritty, street-smart graffiti artist crossing over from downtown beginnings to art gallery fame. Basquiat's form of art is painting, his artworks link to street art and include graffiti, racial inequalities and the fast-paced inner city lifestyle. He use visual codes and symbols represent society, the economy, politics, gender, and culture.

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. …show more content…

Even though it has eyes, a nose, and teeth, the painting gives us the illusion and feeling that the face is incomplete, and the bones are the coming through the surface from underneath. The head is filled with Basquiat’s graffiti, giving the impression there are figures and forms within the face, but when you look closer the face is just a lot of abstract lines and shapes. In his work you can see the anger and intense emotion he had from past experiences, this is what drove his art and reason why he was accepted in to the artworld and why his work is being displayed galleries across the

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