ARTS
Artist Marcus Jansen
FROM PRINCE STREET SIDEWALKS TO GLOBAL MUSEUMS Marcus Jansen in front of When Colonialists Fall
The University of Michigan Museum of Art & The Bronx Museum of the Arts n a remarkable 25-year career, artist Marcus Jansen has progressed from selling his work on the corner of Prince Street and Broadway in Soho to showing in museums and galleries around the world. One of the most prolific artists to emerge from the graffiti school of 1980s-1990s NYC, Jansen’s work is now in the permanent collections of the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Baker Museum at Artis-Naples, the Rollins Museum of Art in Orlando, the University Of Michigan Museum of Art, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art (PERMM), both in Russia, and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, among others. Throughout his career, Jansen’s work has dealt with socially and politically charged issues, including inequality, the environment, and power structures in our culture, and he is considered a pioneer by critics and historians in this respect.
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Examine & Report: A Documentary In Marcus Jansen: Examine & Report, a 2016
BY BENNETT MARCUS
documentary by Emmy-winning filmmaker John Scoular, Dieter Rampl, Chairman of Hypo Kunsthalle, Munich, said of Jansen, “When I was in New York, it was the time of Basquiat and Warhol; I couldn’t compare him to anybody, alive or dead.” The film is available on Amazon Prime TV. Military Service: Gulf War Born in NYC in 1968, Jansen grew up in the Bronx and Queens, then later in Germany, his father’s homeland, where he experienced racism and bullying as a mixed-race child in a small town. It was during summers visiting family back in New York that he encountered graffiti, realizing its potential as an art form useful for communication. “I can’t say that I saw art as a possible profession until the 1980s, when graffiti emerged as an art form,” he says. As an adult, Jansen spent a decade serving in the US Military, including in the first Gulf War. His experience during the Desert Storm offensive spurred him to change his mode of expression. Having been discharged from military service, he took a leap, transitioning to serving in the arts and humanities. “I felt both
were forms of service, but I chose the peaceful one of the two. I was willing to risk the jump, even if it meant selling paintings for $50 apiece for the rest of my life.” He describes painting as “the most intimate act of war.” “Painting is a form of conflict,” Jansen says. “It’s a form of destruction in order to come to a new consensus. It’s an intellectual, psychological, and even physical battle with whatever tools you choose on canvas or other materials. It’s also a spiritual battle from within.” In those early days, he worked double shifts bartending on Long Island on weekends to be able to show his work during the week on Prince Street. Career Highlights – Warner Brothers, John Ortiz, Absolut & Ford Some moments that Jansen considers highlights of his career include his first solo museum exhibition, in 2016 at La Triennale, in Milan, Italy. Another that he holds dear is when he sold his first cardboard painting to Hollywood actor and star of The Cloverfield Paradox, John Ortiz, in 1999. “He stopped by my street corner where I was standing showing
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