Jean-Michel Basquiat
In his essay, Royalty, Heroism, and the Streets: The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Farris Thompson recounts the story of the first time he was able to watch Basquiat at work. It was in February 1985. Just before Basquiat began painting, he did something rather interesting, as Farris Thompson notes
"Basquiat activated an LP of free, Afro-Cuban, and other kinds of jazz. Then he resumed work on an unfinished collage. Hard bop sounded. Jean-Michel pasted on letters and crocodiles. He did this with a riffing insistence, matching the music. Digits in shifting sequences, 2 2 2 2, 4 4 4, 5 5 5 5, further musicalized the canvas He continued to work. Four styles of jazz free, mambo-inflected, hard bop, and, at the end, fabulous early bop …show more content…
It was a slightly different style of graffiti compared to that of the graffiti that clothed the New York subway trains. Rather than simply writing SAMO (which meant Same Old Shit') he included slogans which were implicitly political and drawings that were primitive in style yet complex in meaning. It wasn't long before Basquiat gained recognition for his unusual style of art. Just as music was an essential part of the subway graffiti art scene, music was a fundamental contributor to the art produced by Basquait. It was the exhilarating, frenetic improvised jazz sounds of the 1940s and 50s, with the likes of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, among other be-bop musicians that inspired …show more content…
It was a constitutive part of Basquiat's work, as Farris Thompson states "understanding the art of Jean-Michel depends in part on understanding his lifelong involvement with music literally his working ambient. Jazz and blues are prominent, consciously chosen Afro-Atlantic roots." Particular jazz musicians Basquiat idolised were Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Max Roach, but most prominently Charlie Parker. In her book Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art, Phoebe Hoban draws upon numerous comparisons between Basquiat and Parker: they both left home at fifteen, both were terminal junkies and sex addicts, both became acquainted with the latest artistic trend of the time, thus both becoming famous by the age of twenty-one and both were intelligent yet "self-conscious bad boys." From this evidence it is clear why Basquiat had such empathy with Parker and why he saw himself as "art's answer to Charlie Parker."
It is with the influence of Parker and jazz on Basquiat's art that we can observe the improvisation in his work "grounded in a knowing assimilation of the past." And it is with Parker that I want to explore Basquiat's art to see how he used Parker's music and his legacy to create the masterpieces: Charles the First (1982), Horn Players (1983), CPRKR (1982), and Zydeco (1984). I have chosen works from 1982, 1983 and 1984 as that was when "all
"Basquiat activated an LP of free, Afro-Cuban, and other kinds of jazz. Then he resumed work on an unfinished collage. Hard bop sounded. Jean-Michel pasted on letters and crocodiles. He did this with a riffing insistence, matching the music. Digits in shifting sequences, 2 2 2 2, 4 4 4, 5 5 5 5, further musicalized the canvas He continued to work. Four styles of jazz free, mambo-inflected, hard bop, and, at the end, fabulous early bop …show more content…
It was a slightly different style of graffiti compared to that of the graffiti that clothed the New York subway trains. Rather than simply writing SAMO (which meant Same Old Shit') he included slogans which were implicitly political and drawings that were primitive in style yet complex in meaning. It wasn't long before Basquiat gained recognition for his unusual style of art. Just as music was an essential part of the subway graffiti art scene, music was a fundamental contributor to the art produced by Basquait. It was the exhilarating, frenetic improvised jazz sounds of the 1940s and 50s, with the likes of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, among other be-bop musicians that inspired …show more content…
It was a constitutive part of Basquiat's work, as Farris Thompson states "understanding the art of Jean-Michel depends in part on understanding his lifelong involvement with music literally his working ambient. Jazz and blues are prominent, consciously chosen Afro-Atlantic roots." Particular jazz musicians Basquiat idolised were Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Max Roach, but most prominently Charlie Parker. In her book Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art, Phoebe Hoban draws upon numerous comparisons between Basquiat and Parker: they both left home at fifteen, both were terminal junkies and sex addicts, both became acquainted with the latest artistic trend of the time, thus both becoming famous by the age of twenty-one and both were intelligent yet "self-conscious bad boys." From this evidence it is clear why Basquiat had such empathy with Parker and why he saw himself as "art's answer to Charlie Parker."
It is with the influence of Parker and jazz on Basquiat's art that we can observe the improvisation in his work "grounded in a knowing assimilation of the past." And it is with Parker that I want to explore Basquiat's art to see how he used Parker's music and his legacy to create the masterpieces: Charles the First (1982), Horn Players (1983), CPRKR (1982), and Zydeco (1984). I have chosen works from 1982, 1983 and 1984 as that was when "all