Featured Artist of the Week

Jean-Michel Basquiat

This guy was born in 1980 to a middle class / well-to-do african american family in NYC. He ran away from home when he was about 18 to live the life of a recluse on the streets. He didn't have a job - he just pan handled, or found coins in the street. He found different places to sleep either around the city or with random people. Sometimes he wouldn't sleep at all and he would just wander around for 3 days straight. His name began to grow as a graffiti artist, tagging around the Soho area under the same "SAMO" - standing for "same ol shit."

He started painting when a fellow NYC artist discovered him and handed over a wad of cash telling him to go buy art supplies and paint. He would just start to paint and the piece would direct itself, as he would just draw whatever was in his mind, building layer after layer. He would write words, then cross them out then re-write them, then omit letters then re-write it again. His idea was that people always wanted to see what they weren't supposed to, or that the ommitance of something was maybe more powerful than the presence of it.

He would ask people what they thought about his work, and if they liked it he'd say "Well, you like any ol' thing anyway..." but if they offered any criticism he'd say "You don't understand.. This may look like arbitrary lines, but is has to be this way... everything has to be this way... I knew what I was doing when I drew that line."

Basquiat got more and more famous as his work spread. The value of his pieces went from $3,000 - $5,000 per painting to around $30,000 in under 2 years. He was very competitive and always wanted to be the best, but his work maintained an innocence that made it different from anything else out there. He was making tons of money but didn't have a bank account, so he would hide cash around his apartment. His girl friend at the time would be cleaning up and find thousands of dollars shoved between the pages of a book. He always had people at his apartment, we has going out every night, but then would come home in the middle of the morning and paint for hours. His fame even got him a little affair with Madonna.

He once saw Andy Warhol in a restaurant and went in to meet him to get his picture, and give him some post cards he had designed. Andy actually invited him to sit and stay, but Basquiat turned him down saying he "had to go." He then went home and immediately made a painting based off the poloroid, then returned within the hour to give it to Warhol, who loved it.

He did a collaborative show with Warhol at one point. Warhol would start the piece by drawing a logo or quote or something, and then Basquiat would paint over it. This pissed Warhol off, but Basquiat would just make him draw something else. The show bombed according to the press, who accused warhol of taking advantage of Basquiat and Basquiat being too over-eager to tag along with Warhol.

3 things caused the demise of Basquiat - 1) The death of Andy Warhol who passed away unexpectedly after a simple surgery in the hospital, which left Basquiat totally grief stricken as this had been much like his mentor. 2) The death of a close african american friend who was beat to death by 5 police officers after doing graffiti on a subway train also affected him, and also 3) his use of cocaine. He started using cocaine to deal with some of his issues - trouble with focus, fame, and also had some daddy issues.

One day, he just didn't wake up from his sleep. There's a romanticism around the struggling artist who can't handle his life, and the media demanded so much out of a guy who was too sensitive to get through it. They say artists can sometimes subconsciously predict their own end, and his work got very dark for a while during his depression before his death.

He passed away in 1988, and since then his work has gone global.

This guy just sorta reminds me of any one of our peers at CCS. Just young raw talent, running around wild trying to get the most of the world, and just super talented. So once you guys start to make your millions, try to keep it real :-). Oh yeah, and go watch the movie about this guy :

Jean-Michel Basquiet : The Radiant Child.