Maria José - A BIOGRAPHY

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

When Elton said that we couldcan choose a biography as a theme for the last composition, I decided to talk about someone I’ve never seen, but I dreamt ofto knowing; someone who has made something different in his/her time. Then, I decided to talk about Jean-Michel Basquiat, because this year we would celebratecommemorated his fiftieth birthdayfifties.

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an African-American painter born in Brooklyn, New York, on December, 22, 1960. His father was an accountant that migrated from Haiti to theThe United States and his mother was a Puerto Rican descendent. At the age of three, Basquiat started drawing cartoons. His career was encouraged by his mother, Mathilde, who took him to New York museums when he was a child. For this reason, at the age of six, his favorite program was to visit The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). When he was eleven, he was fluent in Spanish and French and used to read about Historyhistory, mythology and Symbolist poetry in these languages. These reading reflected in his choicechose of his themes and in the high level of his work. In 1968 Basquiat suffered a car accident and stayed in a hospital during a month. During this period, his mother gave him the book Grey’s Anatomy. This book wouldwill influence his career, because he wouldwill use details of bodies of anatomic pieces in his paintingspainter. In 1977 Basquiat, using the character “SAMO”, started spray-painting graffiti in downtown Manhattan buildings and subway. In 1978, his friends Al Diaz joined to him in graffiti painting and both used “SAMO” signature. These graffiti called attention by their poetical and political themes and by their high quality. Basquiat was unsatisfied by the success of “SAMO” graffiti and decided to stop the project at the end of 1978, declaring that “SAMO IS DEAD” on the SoHo’ walls. At that same time, Basquiat dropped out of school, ranrun away from home and lived as a homeless, selling painting T-shirts and postcards on Manhattan streets to survive. After having quitdropped out the graffiti, he initiated his career as a painterpainting and in 1982 he became part of the Neo-expressionist movement. Basquiat met Andy Warhol in 1982 and became his close friend. Warhol helped Basquiat in his career and both developed some work together until 1985. In 1982, at the age of twenty one, Basquiat had his first exhibition called Anatomy. After this exhibition, he became a very famous artist and his paintings werewas exhibited over the world. He became an icon of the beat bop culture. In 1985 he developed problems with drug abuse and it interfered with his relationship and in his job, but he continued creating more and more. In 1987, with the death of Andy Warhol, Basquiat’s depression increased and on August, 12, he, unexpectedly, died of a drug overdose. Basquiat was a critic artist and in his painting he showedn political themes as genocide, oppression and racism; he rescued his Haitian heritage; he dared subverting classical painting themes as Monalisa. He renewed art concepts, incorporating words in his paintings. Although he had died earlier, Basquiat had becomewas one of most creative and fascinating artist of out time. This composition is my tribute to him.