Jean-Michel Basquiat

By: Marlena Lash

Presenter: Marlena Lash

Co-Presenter(s):
None

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 20-21

Semester: Fall

Faculty Mentor: Anne-Louise Dierkes

Department: Art

Funding Source/Sponsor: SYRCE Symposium

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1cgQO7PFsh_UGxA2jknYQgcJRLpj6Yvk3

Abstract:
My project is a mixture of a biography of Jean-Michel Basquiat and his artwork. He was a well-known, 1980s, New York artist. We know that struggles are a part of life. Towards the beginning of my project, I mention what his background was and the struggles he had to face in order to become a well-known artist. When he was younger, both Basquiat and his friend signed their artwork using the abbreviation SAMO. SAMO was well-known in both of their artwork. They used it for quite some time but Basquiat later departed from his friend but continued to use the name SAMO. Some of Basquiat’s struggles included him quitting school, using drugs and becoming paranoid resulting in him isolating himself from most of the world around him. There is no doubt that these struggles were hard to face, but once he faced them, he learned how to express himself through his artwork in a new way. Some of his well-known paintings that I included in my project were “Bird on Money”, “Untitled” (Skull), and “Untitled” (Devil). The painting “Bird on Money” was created in 1981. For both the “Untitled” paintings, he didn’t know what to call it but most people started to call it the way they saw the painting. The Skull was painted in 1981, which was also presented at his solo gallery exhibition in New York City. The Devil painting was created a year later and I am not sure where this piece was created. I also included a compare and contrast of his Graffiti art with Graffiti art in the decade of 2020. I want people to notice the difference in art within the art world, preferably in the year 1980s and 2020. Most of Basquiat’s paintings are abstract so many people who view his artwork have different ways of interpreting it. I hope you enjoyed looking at my project and learned more about Jean-Michel Basquiat.