Throughout the 1980’s there was one particular artist that had the gift of translation. He was able to take art from the street, and translate it into beautiful pieces in which could be understood in galleries. This artist was Jean-Michel Basquiat. He is most known for his rough around the edges, graphic style. This style addressed issues such as race, culture, and heritage in a provocative and loud way. His notorious street art became an icon and brought light to the Neo- expressionism era as well as empowering art as a whole. (JPMorgan Chase, Who Was Basquiat?). Paintings such as Untitled Skull were a huge part of this movement in this era of art.
Jean Michel Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn New York, to a Haitian father, named Gerard Basquiat, and a Puerto Rican mother, named Matilde Andrades. He was the oldest of three children; both of his siblings were females, Lisanne and Jeanine. He learned to read and write by the age of four, and could do it in English, French, and Spanish by eleven. His artistic abilities were recognized at an early age by his mother and teachers. With their recognition came support and encouragement. (Bonnie Rosenberg, Jean-Michel Basquiat- Biography). As a young boy Basquiat’s mother would take him to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where he was enrolled as a junior member. This experience at the art museum was what exposed him to different artistic, pieces, and types of paintings. (The European Graduate School, Jean- Michel Basquiat Biography).
At eight years old Jean Michel was hit by a car. This accident brought a lot of internal injuries, causing him to stay at the hospital for an entire month. During this time, his mother bought him the book Gray’s Anatomy, an English human anatomy textbook, to keep him occupied during this time. (JPMorgan Chase, Who Was Basquiat?). Shortly after his recovery from the car accident his parents separated. His mother was sent in and out of mental intuitions. Due to her instability, his father raised him and his two sisters. Together they resided in Brooklyn until 1974 when they then moved to Puerto Rico for some time. While living in Puerto Rico Basquiat made his first attempt at running away, but failed after the police found and brought him back home to his family. (Bonnie Rosenberg, Jean-Michel Basquiat Biography).
As a young teenager Basquiat took part in the City as School program, which focused mainly on culture. Here, he met Al Diaz and Shannon Dawson. All three of them were fascinated by comics, cartoon drawings, and graffiti. Basquiat never graduated from high school. Instead, he ran away to the streets of Manhattan for a few years. During these years Basquiat, along with his new friends created a graffiti tag. They differed from other graffiti artists because instead of just writing their names, they wrote out sarcastic, funny poetic texts that received a lot of attention from the media. (Edward 49).
It was not long until the graffiti tag became famous in the area of New York. It was written about in the SoHo News, as well as the Village Voice. After his new found “fame”, future famous students, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf became fans and took their own art to the streets. It was this that caused Basquiat to take his art to canvas. (The European Graduate School, Jean-Michel Biography). Unlike his friend Al Diaz, Jean Michel was more interested with art and publicity rather than graffiti and street art. Around 1980 the graffiti tag went through a transition, and Basquiat began to tag more pieces on his own. He started to draw and paint on paper and canvas. Soon after it was seen throughout the streets that the graffiti tag was officially dead. The death was a result of a fall out between the members. (JPMorgan Chase, Who Was Basquiat).
Jean Michel’s early works resembled a lot of his former graffiti tag’s characteristics, but as time went on they began to change. While keeping his graffiti style he incorporated much more of a painter-like edge to his works. His pieces were based on popular culture and iconography. With his experimentation of collage and montage styles, Basquiat’s career began to really take off. (Edward 50).
During his transition from street artist to gallery artist, Basquiat was brought into a kind of fame which was common for young artists in the field of visual arts. During this newly found fame he met the “on the scene” New Yorker, Glenn O’Brien. O’Brien became an important piece for Basquiat in the downtown scene. Basquiat appeared on his show, TV Party and made repeated visits to the program over the next few years. He also starred in an independent film entitled New York Beat, which later became known as Downtown 81, as an unlucky painter who hung out on the streets of downtown in the music scene. (The European Graduate School, Jean- Michel Basquiat-Biography).
Jean Michel Basquiat was becoming a huge star in the realm of downtown artists. He started an art noise band called Gray with Shannon Dawson, Wayne Clifford, Michael Holman and Nick Taylor. None of them actually knew how to play an instrument, yet had success with the band. They formed in 1979 and began performing in all of the big downtown clubs such as CBGB’s, the Mudd Club, Max’s Kansas City, and Hurrah. Basquiat performed at the Times Square Show in 1980. Critics singled out his work in this performance. From this he was included in the painted exhibition New York/New Wave at the contemporary art venue in Queens, P.S.1. (Jean Michel Basquiat).
