Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart) is a tribute piece to the young artist Michael Stewart who was caught by two officers when vandalising a subway station and was subsequently beaten to death. The imagery of this piece is incredibly powerful, the ‘cartoonish cops’ drawn in a child like scribble with batons raised in the air has extremely malevolent connotations. The figure in the middle is a ‘ faceless silhouette’ their passive pose showing their complete helplessness. The lack of features represents the threat that Basquiat saw to all people of his race, he himself saying “It could have been me”. Finally the writing behind the figure  “¿DEFACIMENTO?” really questions the viewer, making them think who is actually defacing. The man drawing on the wall or the man? Depending on the viewer’s personal beliefs their opinion will change.

What I find most interesting about this piece however is that even though this piece was made in 1983, it couldn’t be anymore contemporary. You still read now of the race issues in America, most notably between the police and black Americans. Even ‘31 years’ later ‘Eric Garner’ was killed in ‘an illegal choke hold in NYC by Police, an all to similar story to that of Michael Stewart. This piece is an excellent example of art recording history and politics, hopefully so that us in the future can learn from it.

Bibliography–

Liang, O., 2017. Jean Basquiat defacement – Google Search. [online] Google.co.uk. Available at: <https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Jean+Basquiat+defacement&safe=off&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB758GB758&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin59DcmfPXAhXDCsAKHbtiCBgQ_AUICigB&biw=1368&bih=807#imgrc=_> [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].