Nicole Zajac General Art 8 Wednesday 9, 2016 Jean Michel Basquiat, born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, NY, was one of the world’s famous neo-expressionists in the world. He is the only African American paper to have attained a mystic “superstar” position. This previous graffiti artist whose work is inextricable from the scenery of NYC streets and alleys infiltrated the world’s famous arts with a quite rapid motion. His work captivated the attention of famous art dealers including Mary Boone, Anina Nosei, and Bruno Bischofberger, and meanwhile enthralling a diverse (class-wise) audience ranging from the poor to the rich. He had first arrested the attention NYC people for his graffiti under the nickname of “SAMO”. Before his career of painting …show more content…
Joe Louis by Jean Michel Basquiat, a halo sits atop of the head of Joe Louis akin to the artwork Per Capita where it rests above the head of an unknown combatant. In Christian/Catholic iconography the halo would symbolize faithfulness, devotion and piety but also a sanctified prominence. I am inferring that the figures that I constantly find in Basquiat’s paintings (other than the saints thought of in his head) have been destroyed due to the sins others have made. In this painting, St. Joe Louis, greed would be the sin. Those that may make the person “greedy” would have been those surrounding the boxer situated in the middle of the painting. The illustration may also signify that sometimes those that are the achievers, started from the very bottom. For example, in the weird painting, a looking- professional boxer has a halo above his head but has one foot without a shoe. This may symbolize that he has a good character and he is good at boxing even though he might be poor or shoeless. This shows how I interpreted the picture to …show more content…
However, the way this is seen to “non-artists” it is seen, but through the eyes of an artist there is nothing puerile about the power Basquiat’s work has to communicative different thoughts and meanings. These “childish” paintings depict themes varying from drug abuse, jazz, capitalism, bigotry, and mortality. Amongst these topics, those that are the most pervasive throughout his artwork include themes of racial and socioeconomic inequality. After thoroughly searching for key points in Basquiat’s brief but memorable career, the impact on imagery, textual and visual, within and among his paintings also helped to create a superior impact on the society. In each of Basquiat’s paintings, there is an immediate lesson shown and it provides a different view through which we can examine urban beauty and decay, and the social unfairness’s that patiently wait in the
Basquiat was a creative, self-taught artist who thought outside of the box when it came to painting. Most of the pieces he made were a collaboration of different ideas and constructed them together into a collage. During the 1980’s, Basquiat’s art used the human figure to portray Minimalism and Conceptualism. His target market that was in many of his pieces was on suggestive dichotomies that focused on the lower class versus the higher class. Even though Basquiat's work was remarkable, he was criticized and faced some challenges during his journey because of the symbols and words that were used in his paintings.
In Style Wars, one sees how social marginalization affected graffiti writers in 1970s and 1980s New York. Firstly, Style Wars chronicles how the city government employed racist policing and propaganda to criminalize writers of color. Secondly, the documentary shows that newspapers and TV networks unequally privileged writers of higher socioeconomic status through front-page and prime-time coverage. Thirdly, the film depicts graffiti writers who conformed to masculine norms as disproportionately visible throughout the city. Although many writers featured in Style Wars minimized barriers against making art, legal racism, classist media coverage, and interpersonal masculinity limited recognition for certain writers.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA as it is commonly known, is among the world’s largest art collections in North America, and to be specific enough the most prevalent artwork in the western United States (Compton 165). This massive art museum has a collection of over 100,000 artworks, which extends from the ancient times to present days (Gilbert and Mills 174). These collections, which are mainly from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin-America and America itself, are grouped into several departments within the museums buildings, depending on the region, culture, media, and time period. This paper analyzes the different genres of art and explains the main features that make the Islamic artworks distinguish themselves as historic masterpieces, by using stylistic and interpretive analysis methods.
Neo-Expressionism, an art movement that developed in the 1970s, is characterized by its abandonment of “Minimalist restraint and Conceptual coolness. [It] offered violent feeling expressed through previously taboo means-including gestural paint handling and allegory” (Neo-Expressionism). Jean-Michel Basquiat, a well-known Neo-Expressionist painter, explored a multitude of themes that interested him. The most prevalent were issues on race, culture, and heritage. During his 27 years of life, he was able to accurately represent the everyday struggle of the average African-American male while reforming the art industry, defying and accepting stereotypes, and depicting touchy themes of race in his visual art.
Throughout the 1980’s, the graffiti scene was very familiar with the name “Basquiat.” Jean-Michel Basquiat is an American graffiti artist who was born in Brooklyn, New York. His artwork is mostly defined as neo-expressionism with a bit of primitivism. His medium was usually a combination of oils, acrylics and spray cans. One could look at Basquiat’s pieces and say they are as if a child scribbled on a canvas, but to me, there is more than that. I admire Basquiat not for what he is, but for what he is not. I believe it requires a lot of bravery to showcase your art that is less than perfect as in the social standards for fine art. Basquiat did just that and was still well respected for it. I feel as if he conquered in keeping his childhood creativity
When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.
The film Basquiat explores the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, a Haitian-Puerto Rican painting in New York City during the 1980s. Working closely with Andy Warhol, Basquiat was exploited for his unique “urban ghetto” graffiti and crude style of representation. Schnabel’s film further exploits this image of the painter, depicting him in various scenes of poverty and drug addiction, dirty poor love and desperation. Our understanding of the artist is framed by excerpts from essays by art critic Rene Ricard, depicted as a flaming homosexual who leeches off of his artistic friends. Ricard observes the hypocrisy and self-indulgence of the art scene that is vital to...
"Banksy Paradox: 7 Sides of the Most Infamous Street Artist | Urbanist." WebUrbanist RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2014.
Artists have a knowledge of all the artists that preceding them, creating a visual vocabulary from the art that they have seen and understand. For Jean-Michel Basquiat, that knowledge translates into his work, despite never having formal training in an art school. It is his awareness and understanding of the culture that surrounds him that brings a layer of sophistication to his painting, setting it apart from street graffiti that has been painted on canvas. Basquiat’s Untitled (Julius Caesar on Gold) (1981) is a confrontation of his own identity that is created with the visual vocabulary of artists that preceded him.
Art is a very important part of humanity’s history, and it can be found anywhere from the walls of caves to the halls of museums. The artists that created these works of art were influenced by a multitude of factors including personal issues, politics, and other art movements. Frida Kahlo and Vincent van Gogh, two wildly popular artists, have left behind artwork, that to this day, influences and fascinates people around the world. Their painting styles and personal lives are vastly different, but both artists managed to capture the emotions that they were feeling and used them to create artwork.
They were living on couches, and sneaking onto trains to get from one part of the city to another. In Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, A documentary by Tamra Davis, an ex-girlfriend of Jean-Michel’s was quoted, “If you've decided to live a certain counterculture, subversive lifestyle, its very difficult to go home” (2010). Jean-Michel lived that counterculture lifestyle; he was a graffiti artist, spray painting New York under the name of SAMO. Jean-Michel never had a real job because he claimed that it felt humiliating to have someone order him around. When he became desperate for money, he made and sold postcards on the streets of New York (Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child). Neo-expressionism also operated largely outside of the state. However, as with most art, critics were quick to claim that the art was being produced and sold as a commodity and therefore was controlled by the market. But many chose to take the side that Irving Sandler did in his book Art of the Postmodern Era, “… genuine works of art had meanings which have nothing to do with commerce or politics and are unaffected by either” (Sandler, 225). This was the mindset that drove most Neo-expressionist artists. In all “genuine” art, there is an attempt to disturb the hegemony and make people see things
Graffiti has been around for centuries. It can be seen on buildings, cars, and anything that can be painted with a spray can. Since graffiti came to exist, there has been much debate on whether it is an art form or an illegal activity. While it has been banned and deemed illegal all over the world, it still persists in today’s society. Along with the controversy that comes with graffiti, many commonly known stereotypes are apparent within the act of graffiti. Stereotypically, graffiti is seen as an urban act done by younger people. Typically, since this act is considered illegal, it is mostly done in the middle of the night, and the people partaking are usually wearing dark or black clothes. The picture, “LATA 65 IS A CREATIVE
Graffiti has been on the rise in popularity since its beginnings fifty years ago. Danielle Crinnion provides a brief history of graffiti arguing that “Philadelphia
Basquiat began to expand his work by attending art festivals and events in other states and countries than just New York. One of his favorite places to visit was Africa. “This expansive work of the 1980’s compresses together the relationship of Egypt to Africa, with reference to more local centers of African-American music within southern culture (www.theartstory.org). Instead of displaying his work on the streets of New York, he exhibited his artwork in various places throughout the world, especially at the Kestner-Gesellschaft Gallery in Hanover, Germany. “His work and style received critical acclaim for the fusion of words, symbols, stick figures, and animals.
Graffiti today is developing into one of the finest and one of the most successful voices of modern art. Graffiti has been alive since the time people used to paint in caves. Modern graffiti actually made an impact in the late 1960s. This art has been struggling for a very extensive time to be considered as such, even though government regarded it as a criminal act. The fact of the matter is that in the past it has been an interpretation of anger against the establishment. Most people haven’t acted on writing graffiti in obedience of the law, while others take it into action to show discontent by making more graffiti. This practice has become more of a symbol that can express better the feelings of the practitioner. As graffiti started taking