by a single name. From marking the walls of New York City with graffiti and selling postcards xeroxed from his art for $1 each, to meeting and collaborating with some of the most famous artists of all time, including the instantly recognizable Father of Pop Art, Andy Warhol, his life and work is a major part of art history. When his painting sold for $110.5 million and broke the record for the highest price paid at auction for a work by an American artist, it broke the record previously held by his friend, mentor and frequent collaborator, Andy Warhol, for his 1963 work Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), which sold in 2013 for $105.4 million. Basquiat’s popularity was driven by both the uniqueness of his art itself and his extraordinary backstory and charisma. It’s a tale of growing up middle class, then leaving home from time to time at 15, and then becoming homeless and sleeping in the homes of friends or lovers, while at the same time unwaveringly dedicating himself to spraying graffiti on buildings and painting on any object he could find. Art was his life, regardless of the money. The tale then changed dramatically when he shot to the top of the artworld in extraordinary time and then began to paint in expensive Armani suits, spend extravagantly from his newly acquired wealth, and hang out with the rich and famous. A mythological “hero’s journey” made real.
The Ingredients of Style As a child, Basquiat often visited various museums with his mother, who encouraged his artistic pursuits. He dreamed of becoming a cartoonist, and while he was in the hospital after being hit by a car when he was 7, his mother bought him a
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Untitled Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.
Irony of Negro Policeman, 1981
copy of Gray’s Anatomy, which included anatomical drawings, to keep him from being bored. In 1976, Basquiat and his school friend, Al Diaz, formed a team and began spraying the city walls with graffiti using the name SAMO©, which meant “same old shit.” Their messages included such statements as “LIFE IS CONFUSING AT THIS POINT.” At 17, Basquiat quit school and left home to live on his own. In time, he made some new friends, and they started the band Gray. He often hung out with musicians, filmmakers and artists at various venues. All of these early influences— his visits to museums, his mixed Afrocentric heritage, the cartooning, Gray’s Anatomy, his graffiti writing, music, and his rebellious nature—would become the ingredients of his unique personal and artistic style. “Basquiat found inspiration in everything around him,” according to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. “He read constantly and often listened to music or watched television while painting. The artist immersed himself in high art and graffiti, jazz and rap, punk and pop
culture, medical textbooks and comic books, and then channelled this complexity into sophisticated, layered work that anticipated today’s Internet culture.” According to curator Eleanor Nairne, “His genius lay in distilling the culture that he witnessed into a visual language full of encrypted references— each charged with endless layers of meaning. In his canvases, you find nods to his Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage; to the pioneers of bebop; comic-book heroes; the masters of 20thcentury art; ancient Egyptian mythology; notable AfricanAmerican figures… The list goes on and on.” (Vogue, September 20, 2017) After exhibiting his art in a few group shows in the U.S. and abroad, in 1982, he had his first U.S. solo art show, which garnered great reviews. After that show, he was on his way to phenomenal success.
BAVUAL:
The Critics and the Defense Although Basquiat became one of the most popular artists ever, he also had his critics. Art critic Hilton Kramer, for example,
The African Heritage Magazine
| Winter 2022
