Basquiat's Impact On The Art World

Jean –Michel Basquiat was like a solar eclipse in the art world, something you rarely see and briefly exist. While Basquiat had a brief existence in the mainstream art world, he changed the art world forever. For the few people that were lucky enough to witness this event known by many names such as SAMO, Innovator, The First, Phenomenon and simply Basquiat, his impact is everlasting. However, unlike a solar eclipse Basquiat left behind stories that are in many different media, now these stories are all over the world, we call them works of art. Basquiat is without a doubt one of American greatest artists, we will look at Basquiat life, his impact in the art world and his artwork's.
Basquiat did not have an easy life, he had many problems
and conflict issues some would even say demons, he would use his artworks as a platform to express these issues and tell his stories, born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Gerard Basquiat was from Haitian and his mother, Matilde Andrades was from Puerto Rico. He had two older sisters Lisane and Jeanine they were four and seven years younger. Basquiat heritage would greatly influence his artwork; he learned how to read and write at a very young age, Basquiat was fluent in French and Spanish at the age of eleven. Basquiat mother and teachers recognized his love of art at a young age and they encourage him to pursue his dreams , Basquiat offend went to Manhattan to see art and his mother enroll him as junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, exposing him to various forms of art.
By the time he was three or four years old, Jean -Michel drew constantly." Jean Michel painted all of his life," says his father Gerard (Hoban 16). The ability seems to run in the family, Basquiat father likes to draw and his uncle was a commercial artist, his mother was very artistic: she designed clothes. Basquiat also was allowed to list to all kinds of music at a young age, when he was eight years old he was hit by a car while playing the street Basquiat spent eight months in the hospital recovering, to keep him occupied during his recovery his mother brought Basquiat drawing books like Grey Anatomy.
Basquiat went to St. Ann’s and private school until the fourth grade. After St. Ann‘s he went to several public schools for a year he was bused to P.S.101 in Bensonhurst as part of a integration program, Basquiat made an impression on several of his teachers there. Basquiat ran away from home several times during his teenage years and finally would drop out of high school around the tenth grade.
Basquiat of introduction into graffiti art probably happened during the times he was running away from home; he befriended an up-and-coming pioneer in the rap world and follow graffiti artist Fab 5 Freddy.
In 1977, at the age of 17, Basquiat began trawling the streets of lower Manhattan with his friend Al Diaz. They spray-painted graffiti on derelict, rundown tenement buildings in lower Manhattan and signed their work with the initials “SAMO”, or “SAMO shit” (“same old shit”). SAMO earned him notoriety and a certain amount of fame, when Basquiat and Diaz friendship ended, the SAMO project ended with epitaph “SAMO IS DEAD”, inscribed on the walls of SoHo
buildings.
Basquiat even had a band, he began to achieve some modest successes, with his band, Gray, which performed at local nightclubs and Arleen Scholes’s event Basquiat would later exhibit, in October of 1979, a few pieces under the SAMO brand. During this time marked beginning of a friendship and collaboration with Andy Warhol, whom Basquiat met at a restaurant, where he showed Warhol a few pieces of his work. Warhol and Basquiat would later go on to collaborate on several different art pieces, but their relationship with face challenges Warhol once called Basquiat the Eddie Murphy of the art world referencing that he was more entertaining than substance. At the time of Warhol's death, Warhol and Basquiat were not on speaking terms.
At the age of 20, when his artwork began to achieve notoriety in the New York art circles, Basquiat first public exhibition was in ‘Time Square” shows in June, there were over 200 different artists exhibited.
Basquiat had his first solo exhibition at the Annina Nosei Gallery, in SoHo (1982). The exhibition was a great success, Basquiat’ s rise to wider recognition coincided with the arrival, in New York, of the German Neo-Expressionist movement, which provided a congenial forum for his own street-smart, curbside expressionism. One only needs to look at Basquiat artwork to understand how his surroundings life experiences, cultural differences, cultural identity, race, and influence his
artwork.
Basquiat impact in the art world would be unparalleled he was the voice of a generation, he spoke for the young underprivileged, and he was able to paint stories on canvas. Basquiat was very similar to the artist of the Harlem Renaissance era; he was making waves in uncharted waters, bringing social issues to the forefront in the art world. He was boldly demand a seat at the table, his artwork was a full course meal, and once you took a bite you wanted more. He was able connected the social issues of his time to his artwork. Basquiat was an exceptional creative talent by any standard; he was able to give the public an insight into race, graffiti art, pain, and lots more. Basquiat single handedly brought the black and Hispanic experience into the white art-world establishment (Short Life).
He was the first artist to come from the shadows of graffiti art and merge it with studio art, by doing so he brought new ideals from the streets into the mainstream art world. Given a voice to artists who long been waiting for their opportunity and acceptance in the mainstream art world, Basquiat bold use of colors and subject matter gave an insight into Street art like no one had ever done. His use of found materials and media were different, he had no formal art training so he had no limitations on what materials he would use in his artwork .He was able merge together two art worlds that people thought never could coexist together.
Once you look at Basquiat artworks, you can clearly see the subjects he chooses to address like in the painting Irony of a Negro Policeman, is a direct look at how Basquiat tried to depict the battle that an African-American police must face. By using the word Negro, he takes you back to a time in history where African-Americans, probably been greeted with skepticism and not accepted in society as Policeman, also trying to depict the battle between being a black Policeman and been a black man.
While white society and fellow white police officers would deem you to black to perform, your job and the African-American community would think you had betrayed them by becoming a Policeman. The figure in the painting is a total totalitarian by black mass, with a mask- like face and he had totalitarian cage you will also notice in the upper right corner the words the “Irony of Negro policeman” and this is classic Basquiat choosing to use words to draw your attention to an area of his artwork. As you looked down right of side of the painting, you will see the word pawn, which I believe, references the fact that white society was using an African-American police officer to control his own community. I believe Basquiat is using the Policeman as a symbol of the black man as an overseer of his own people place in charge by the white master like doing slavery. I think he also gives you a choice at looking at the painting in a positive light by using the word ironing, it means that the Negro Policeman is a sign of progress within our society, yet the painting still expresses skepticism.