Notes on movie "Jean-Michel Basquiat: Radiant Child"

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Originally uploaded by ablotial_postcards

Langston Hughes
Genius child

This is a song for the genius child.
Sing it softly, for the song is wild.
Sing it softly as ever you can -
Lest the song get out of hand.

Nobody loves a genius child.

Can you love an eagle,
Tame or wild?
Can you love an eagle,
Wild or tame?
Can you love a monster
Of frightening name?

Nobody loves a genius child.

Kill him - and let his soul run wild.



Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child by Tamra Davis

- famous for being famous, for being infamous

Brooklyn, 1960 - 1988
born to Puerto Rican mother and Haitian father.
Tri-lingual child; precocious.
Taken to museums as child; art encouraged.
Father was successful accountant, middle class.

"Salt peanuts," bebop tune by Dizzy Gillespie, 1940's.

Late 1970's NYC
- crime-ridden
- Manhattan affordable
- graffiti being born
- movies "Taxi Driver," "Midnight Cowboy"
- SoHo / Canal St / the Bowery
- art crowd: "downtown 500"
- panhandling
- J-MB: oblique poetry
- SAMO: multiple-choice graffiti, ideas
- J-MB and friends began noise band "Grey"
- J-MB begins to make t-shirts, collages and collage postcards
- sells postcards to the God of NYC art, Andy Warhol
- Mudd Club, CBGBs
- Fab 5 Freddy: graffiti, hip hop artist, MTV host, producer
- J-MB as teen had a clear, strong hand in sketching
- star of indie movie "Downtown 81"
- cannot hold a straight job

- The Times Square Show, 100 artists, including J-MB
- artists Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf
- using street refuse instead of canvas - paintings on doors, windows, tires, sheets of paper, on floor
- loved books as source material; Grey's Anatomy, Mark Twain.
- emerges with NY New Wave Show at PS 1, 1981, curator Diego Cortez.
- given studio space in Annina Nosei's gallery, SoHo.
- "Bolero," by Maurice Ravel
- made $200,000 in Annina Nosei show

- ArtForum profile a springboard to fame.
- "street energy into high art"
- paintings have numerous references to art history
- Loved literature from Mark Twain to radical writer William Burroughs (collage/cut-up writing from surrealists)
- Jazz lover: Bird, Trane, Miles, bebop
- in effect, a bebop painter

- "incredible work ethic," "constantly painting"
- ambitious, competitive
- Larry Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, 1983
- charisma
- Swiss art dealer, Bruno Bischofberger, who was associated with Warhol, etc
- exhibits alongside top artists such as Julian Schnabel, who eventually made a bio film, "Basquiat."
- making huge amounts of money; no bank account
- gourmet delights; constant party at his studio.

- NY Times magazine cover story: "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist"
- hanging w celebs: affair w/ Madonna in '82.
- Warhol does J-MB portrait
- Warhol: "I am so jealous; he's faster than me."
- art world cognoscenti did not fully accept him as great artist
- minimalism, conceptualism had been regnant in 70's NYC
- category for J-MB: neo-expressionist
- on painting: "constant editing process"
- "I cross out words so that you will see them more."
- hit by car at age 7; spleen removed. Given copy of Grey's Anatomy.
- child-like view and style.

- Venice (LA) studio - away from celebritydom of NYC.
- Pressure of stardom: began to use heroin.
- Romance of artist whose life is so intense it is impossible to bear.
- Affected by the beating death of Michael Stewart by NYC cops.

- "The black Picasso."
- Looked to some people as primitive artist.
- "Excavated black history of Black Americans."
- "This year's interesting negro."
- People exploiting him.
- Substance abuse.

- Hana, Hawaii, as retreat. No drugs.
- Warhol a father figure.
- Collaboration with Warhol, 1984 - 86.
- Warhol-Basquiat show: bad reviews.
- Warhol death, 1987. J-MB devastated.

- "They tell me the drugs are killing me. And I stop. Then they tell me my art is dead."
- Final paintings were stark. Age of 27. "Riding with death."
- Difficulty with father, with the press, with emotions, with drugs.
- Most famous artist of his generation.
- Afraid of drugs, becomes isolated; afraid his career was over.
- Body of work: 1000 paintings, 1000 drawings.
- More appreciated today than during his life.