story of Jean-Michel Basquiat It is unfortunate not only his untimely death but also the aggressive marketing of his work and persona in the years leading up to it. He became an ’80s Vogue artist in part because he created an outsider artistic vision based on pure, uneducated impulses, and was perceived as the unfiltered voice of the street. is. But despite coming from a truly poor and troubled background, and living a life that seemed to have strong anti-academic tendencies, Basquiat’s professional growth was better than many of his buyers imagined. was also much more serious and planned.
“At the beginning of his career, Basquiat went out and bought two books,” the narrator says. of Make art, not content video above“Two books that will tell you everything about his work.” One was by Henry Dreyfuss. Symbol Sourcebook: The Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbolswhich “would become the source material for almost all of the 1,500 drawings and 600 paintings he left behind.”
The other belonged to Robert Farris Thompson. Flashes of the Spirit: African American Art and PhilosophyThis gave him a “guiding ideology” to overcome the inevitable artistic obstacles. He can always come back to the “underrepresentation of black art in the established art world” and that “when there’s a message, the art comes from there.” You can easily. ”
But Basquiat also had the advantage of actually being able to work very quickly, which is what brought him to the attention of Andy Warhol. Something is right. ” Thinking too much will interrupt your flow, but if you create as early as possible, there will be no room for thoughts to enter. And remember. “Most of the flow you get while making art comes from everything you’re doing when you’re not making art.” Sadly, Basquiat died before the age of the internet. But if he hadn’t passed away, there’s no doubt that he would have spent his downtime absorbing something more interesting than social media.
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Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages and cultures. His projects include the Substack newsletter books about cities and a book Stateless City: A Stroll Through Los Angeles in the 21st Century. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.
