OPPapers.com Essay Index >> Miscellaneous >> Basquiat
We have many free term papers and essays on Basquiat. We also have a wide variety of research papers and book reports available to you for free. You can browse our collection of term papers or use our search engine.
Jean-Michel Basquiat. Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat was a painter and
a graffiti artist. ... By 1979, Basquiat gained popularity in Manhattan. ...
Basquiat. In his essay, Royalty ... in meaning. It wasn?t long before Basquiat
gained recognition for his unusual style of art. Just as ...
... Two artists that were influenced by jazz were Jean-Michel Basquiat and Stuart Davis. ...
At an early age Basquiat showed an interest and love for drawing. ...
... Two artists that were influenced by jazz were Jean-Michel Basquiat and Stuart Davis. ...
At an early age Basquiat showed an interest and love for drawing. ...
... Two artists that were influenced by jazz were Jean-Michel Basquiat and Stuart Davis. ...
At an early age Basquiat showed an interest and love for drawing. ...
Submitted by Sparkyoldskool on January 2, 2007
Category: Miscellaneous
Words: 3253 | Pages: 14
Views: 139
Popularity Rank: 57,594
Average Member Grade: N/A (Add a Comment / Grade this Paper)
In his essay, Royalty, Heroism, and the Streets: The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Farris Thompson recounts the story of the first time he was able to watch Basquiat at work. It was in February 1985. Just before Basquiat began painting, he did something rather interesting, as Farris Thompson notes…
“Basquiat activated an LP of free, Afro-Cuban, and other kinds of jazz. Then he resumed work on an unfinished collage. Hard bop sounded. Jean-Michel pasted on letters and crocodiles. He did this with a riffing insistence, matching the music. Digits in shifting sequences, 2 2 2 2, 4 4 4, 5 5 5 5, further musicalized the canvas…He continued to work. Four styles of jazz – free, mambo-inflected, hard bop, and, at the end, fabulous early bop with sudden stops – accompanied the making of that collage.”
Towards the end of the 1970s, Jean-Michel Basquiat whose nom de plume at that time was SAMO was producing graffiti on street walls around Brooklyn, New York. It was a slightly different style of graffiti compared to that of the graffiti that clothed the New York subway trains. Rather than simply writing SAMO (which meant ‘Same Old Shit’) he included slogans which were implicitly political and drawings that were primitive in style yet complex in meaning. It wasn’t long before Basquiat gained recognition for his unusual style of art.
Just as music was an essential part of the subway graffiti art scene, music was a fundamental contributor to the art produced by Basquait. It was the exhilarating, frenetic improvised jazz sounds of the 1940s and 50s, with the likes of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, among other be-bop musicians that inspired him.
Jazz has roots embedded in the African American lifestyle, and it was the lifestyle of the jazz musicians that Basquiat identified with. It was a constitutive part of Basquiat’s work, as Farris Thompson states “understanding the art of Jean-Michel depends in part on understanding his...
You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!