Jean-Michel Basquiat was an extraordinary artist from New York City in the 1980s. Basquiat created very non-traditional pieces of art that pushed limits and boundaries, which can be seen through his vibrant use of color and intense brush strokes, as well as the unconventional objects he used as his canvas. His unique style gained him a large amount of prestige and fame in the white-European dominated art world, which I personally found amazing, considering he was a poverty stricken man of Puerto Rican and Haitian descent.
When I, along with other students, was given the chance to explore this exhibit, I grew quite impressed by this man’s story along with his complex art. From being extremely gifted in creativity and imagination along with intelligence as a child, to a homeless high school dropout by 17, Basquiat ended up being one of the biggest artists of his time despite his situation. His work tends to focus on the head and masks, depicting them through x-ray vision so we as observers see into the brain, the nucleus of creativity, a concept I greatly admired.
Basquiat’s art also had major focuses on race, money, and power. He never forgot his Haitian heritage and depicted many West African art pieces with masks of beads and shells. First time observers of his art should not be too quick to judge and deem it “childish”, because of the wild brush strokes, although I myself was guilty of doing so. If you sit down and study his art you’ll find that they all hold significant messages and meaning.
One of my favorites was a painting he did of his friend, the average NYC black man in the eyes of you and me, but a noble man showered in rays of gold in the eyes of Basquiat. He painted his friend in the light that he saw him in despite of what others may assume which I think is beautiful.
I highly recommend exploring the exhibit for yourself and not jumping too fast to conclusions as some of my peers and I did at first. When you think about the fact that Basquiat was a poor black man, living on the streets with all the odds set against him, and still ended up dominating the art world, shocking all the European critics, you’ll realize exactly why we celebrate him to this day.