Basquiat
In the
1980's art punk movement, the only thing the market liked
better than a hot
young artist was a dead hot young artist, and it got one in
Jean-Michel Basquiat,
whose working life of about nine years was truncated by
a heroin overdose at the
age of twenty-seven. His career, both actual and
posthumous, appealed to a
cluster of toxic vulgarities. The artist
was"instinctual," someone
outside "mainstream" culture and therefore not to
be rated in its
terms: a wild pet for the recently cultivated collector. Jean
Michell Basquiat
was indeed a great artist, however he was not meant to be a
celebrity. Basquiat,
gave the art world what they most desired, he filled a
fetish about the
freshness of youth, blooming among the discos of the East
Side scene. Basquiat
also fueled the audience's goggling appetite for
self-destructive talent. This
essay intends to prove that Basquiat did not
deserve his celebrity status,
through analysis of his drug addictions, his
reckless lifestyle and his
primitive art. Jean-Michel Basquiat lead an
incredibly wild life. After his
escape from suburbia into the feverish and
frantic world of Soho, New York he
primarily associated with the most
renowned artists and celebrities.
Jean-Michel's life was filled with the
gods of monsters of the neo-primitive art
movement, it all seemed so
glamourous, he would model for Armani clothes, create
famous art works with
Andy Warhol, dance at studio 54 and sleep with Keith
Harring and Maddona.
But this is where the illusion ends. Basquiat's life was
constant turmoil. He
was perpetually in a drug induced haze, being addicted to
more drugs than
person could possibly invision. At a time he had a live in
errand boy who
would do nothing more than hook-up Basquiat with his drug-de
jour. His habit
eventually, and inevitably lead to his untimely death at the age
of 28. While
alive Jean-Michel was incredibly licentious, a bisexual
artist/model/musician
with a taste for every form of carnal expression can (as
you might imagine)
get into a lot of trouble. He would unabashedly have up to
ten relationships
in the air at once and still feel the need to visit
prostitutes and
mistresses. In life Basquiat contracted numerous venereal
diseases and was
the very epitome of sexually irresponsibility. Basquiat's art
mirrored his
life. His paintings held bold strokes of beautiful colours over
shoddy
canvass painted with fury and distemper. While some may argue that
the
paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat are deceptively simple many say they
are
sloppy works covered in irreverent text and portraits that any grade one
student
could imitate and improve. Basquiat would spin out art without paying
any
attention or care to the final product. However it is a difficult thing
to prove
anti-art, because of the fact that art is so personal and
individually
interpreted.
Bibliography
Basquiat: A Quick
Killing in Art