Jean Michelle Basquait ‘Radient child’. Basquait was a revolutionary in his time, expressive marks and grafiti roots were very conceptual, starting doing street art under the tag SAMO and progressing to produce vast one off works of art, becoming a millionaire in the process. He was a pioneer in Neo-expressionism and people could often misunderstand his work, getting rejected from major galleries such as The Whitney. Art professionals had a problem from Basquait as his work was often uncomfortable, yet it should be to lead a direction for the future, something later acknowledged by the Chief Director of the MoMa. Basquait took influence from art history, giving a clear acknowledgement of the past with an eye on moving it forward. He suffered huge racism by the press and media, as he did not fit the ideal male role perpetuated by them at the time. By representing Jean-Michelle the media would be openly praising the work of a young, African-american, living in a then corrupt situation. Writers such as David Gautleet discusses how gender and identity is represented through print and television and Basquait is a perfect example of the unheard news via media bias.
“They tell me to come off the drugs, so I stop, but then they say my art’s dead”- Jean-Michelle Basquait. The hounding of the press and media from New York magazines lead to his increased paranoia and subsequent decline.
Basquait is an artist I have known little about until this year, with Radiant Child acting as a key aspect in my learning and overall mindset. Basquait was experimental and free to play with imagery and typography, mainly in the medium of paint. His scrawly style was initially rejected from the art world, yet he stook by his style and message and was later a huge success in life. Basquiat has taught me to not be too serious about things, and incorporate Paula Scherr's aspect of 'serious play', allowing child like creativity to be channeled into productive creative outlets. Art is not right or wrong so I need to get less hung up on if tiny insignificant details are right, and concentrate on the overall impact and conceptual merit.
Basquait is an artist I have known little about until this year, with Radiant Child acting as a key aspect in my learning and overall mindset. Basquait was experimental and free to play with imagery and typography, mainly in the medium of paint. His scrawly style was initially rejected from the art world, yet he stook by his style and message and was later a huge success in life. Basquiat has taught me to not be too serious about things, and incorporate Paula Scherr's aspect of 'serious play', allowing child like creativity to be channeled into productive creative outlets. Art is not right or wrong so I need to get less hung up on if tiny insignificant details are right, and concentrate on the overall impact and conceptual merit.
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