I was asked if I would do a piece of work that incorporated the chaotic brilliance of the accomplished black Brooklyn-born and raised American artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat.
30x30" Acrylic on Canvas
Jean Michel Basquiat was one of New York's most charismatic and best selling painters. Born in 1960 to a Haitian father and a New York-native mother of Puerto Rican descent, Basquiat spent a lifetime making art, although he never took an art lesson, instead learning through the surrounding museums, music and popular culture.
Basquiat was known for blending elements of street art with a complex, neo expressionist style. Basquiat used painting as an introspective tool to identify and navigate his experiences in the black community of his time, confronting power structures and systematic racism with political and direct works that criticized colonialism and exhibited class struggle.
"Despite his increasingly mainstream audience, Basquiat insisted on depicting challenging themes of identity and oppression." - Jordana Moore Saggese (JMS)
Basquiat first garnered fame with his tag SAMO© (short for "same old shit"), which he and a friend from high school had created as a logo, "like Pepsi", he told writer Anthony Haden-Guest. Basquiat spray painted ambiguous epigram graffiti under the pseudonym SAMO© with his friend Al Diaz all over the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the late 1970s, which was a place of rapid cultural growth and spread at the time.
"By 1981, at the age of twenty, he had turned from spraying graffiti on the walls of buildings in Lower Manhattan to selling paintings in SoHo galleries, rapidly becoming one of the most accomplished artists of his generation. Astute collectors began buying his art, and his gallery shows sold out. Critics noted the originality of his work, its emotional depth, unique iconography, and formal strengths in color, composition, and drawing. By 1985, he was featured on the cover of The New York Times Magazine as the epitome of the hot, young artist in a booming market." - Brooklyn Museum
Pez Dispenser by Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1984
Borrowing from Basquiat, I painted a background inspired by his approach of calculated improvisation, resulting in a chaotic creation of my own. In the foreground is a representation of the iconic artwork from Basquiat created in 1984, depicting a dinosaur wearing a crown, called Pez Dispenser.
"The crown, Basquiat’s signature artistic motif, both acknowledged and challenged the history of Western art. By adorning black male figures, including athletes, musicians and writers, with the crown, Basquiat raised these historically disenfranchised artists to royal even saintly stature. “Jean-Michel’s crown has three peaks, for his three royal lineages: the poet, the musician, the great boxing champion,” said his friend artist Francesco Clemente." - Sotheby's
Basquiat created a lasting art legacy before his untimely death from a heroin overdose in 1988, at the age of 27.
Basquiat was experiencing and combating the ugliness of racism and oppression until 1988; 32 years later, the world remains rife with racial oppression and inequality. We are confronting SAMO©. It is our history and our present. Basquiat's messages are as applicable and meaningful today. I felt that working through this artwork would channel his spirit to challenge, educate and work in solidarity to dismantle state-sanctioned oppression, violence, and brutality committed against Black communities.*
"His art retains the power to shock, inspire, and get under our skin." - JMS
I have included a list of resources that could provide ways to support the BLM movement, should this be of help to you.
RESOURCES**
Organizations & Websites:
Shows & Movies:***
American Son (Netflix)
Black Power Mix Tape (Prime Video, YouTube)
Clemency (Hulu)
Dear White People (Netflix)
Fruitvale Station (Prime Video, YouTube)
I Am Not Your Negro (Netflix, YouTube)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Prime Video, YouTube)
Just Mercy (YouTube)
King is for Wilderness (YouTube, HBO)
See You Yesterday (Netflix)
Selma (YouTube)
The Hate U Give (YouTube)
When They See Us (Netflix)
Articles & Books:**
*This is not my personal history, and as such I will never truly understand. There is so much more to know about Basquiat, class oppression, social inequality and racism. I have barely scratched the surface and have a limited perspective. This article reflects a high-level understanding and distillation of what I have discovered through research. I am still in the process of becoming educated, and I strongly encourage you to pursue information, research and formulate your own opinions. If you find that any of the contents in this article require further conversation or correction, please reach out to me at info@katrinathunem.com I am open to listening to your perspective.
**Please note that there are many more resources out there and available to you. This is a compilation of resources I have come across. I highly recommend that you to seek out ways to help and organisations that are suitable to you.
***There are other places you can get these resources from, I just listed the sites that I know of.
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