Jean-Michel Basquiat Dipinti

The book I chose to ‘consume’ is on the works of Jean Michel Basquiat by Gianni Mercurio and Mirella Panepinto. The book outlines Basquiat’s back round briefly and gives us a commentary on why his works gained so much popularity being an outsider of the art world and a black man in 1970s America. In one chapter the book brings up a discriminating idea of why he rose to fame by those who were not fond of his art. They argued that Basquiat had mostly been highlighted for the very fact that he is different in all the convenient ways for the sake of diversity as it says “several American critics sustained, with a certain amount of intellectual hostility, that he had taken advantage of being different”. The book isn’t particularly biased to any side weather it was his art or his back round but narrates it in a factual way. That one quotation from the book accurately reflects on the period in which Basquiat flourished which contrasted to a stereotypical life of an African American citizen as he was one of the earliest of his ethnicity to reach globalised fame as an artist. However, the book talks about the art itself in relation to the artists mind which delves into the fact that the works itself are different rather than the artist. As his paintings are very childish in style but somewhat communicative in a grown up instinctive way. The book emphasises the diversity of his works and talks about its influence from music, urban culture and graffiti rather than on the artists own diversity.

Jean-Michel Basquiat Dipinti by Gianni Mercurio and Mirella Panepinto

Quote from Page 19