Exhibition
Jean-Michel Basquiat: An Intimate Portrait
An intimate look at the friendship between artists Nicholas Taylor and Jean-Michel Basquiat, born under the pulsating lights of New York's famed Mudd Club in lower Manhattan in January, 1979. The Mudd Club was a beehive of creativity, where the likes of Fab Five Freddy, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Keith Haring, and Madonna frequented before they became famous. These historic photographs, shot on just one role of film, are being exhibited and traveled for the first time in their entirety. These images are portals into the life of an artist who was on the threshold of taking the art world by storm. Countless essays and reviews have been written about Basquiat and his work. This exhibition focuses on the portrait of a man, an artist, and, most importantly, a friend. Taylor's and Basquiat's friendship endured many years, through the ups and downs of Basquiat's rise to fame and sustained notoriety in the art world until his untimely death in 1988.
What remains are these striking images, taken by Taylor, of a nineteen-year-old Jean-Michel Basquiat, unspoiled by the art-star celebrity which was to reveal itself in just a few short years. The accompanying text panels, written by Taylor, document the friendship the two shared and also serve to contextualize the historical significance of Basquiat in the early 1980s. Taylor's personal revelations and memories are shared with great candor. Looking back on these images, twenty- some years later, there is a subtle aura of predetermination for Basquiat. His actions and poses, captured by Taylor, appear aloof or casual upon first glance. These are, in fact, rarely publicized documentation of his character and use of body language to express his emotions and personality which, in turn, reflect his serendipitous struggle for fame and respect. Basquiat struggled for fame, fortune, and, most importantly, inclusion into the very closed society that was the self-serving art world of the early 1980s.
Basquiat painted as he lived--full throttle--everything all the time. He had little sense of self control, nor did he seek out any realm of moderation. In retrospect, his paintings are aggressive and fragmented; radiating nervous energy and enthusiasm for the chaotic world of which he was apart. Existing simultaneously in his work is a sense of excitement, imagination, and exploration of visual language. His frustration in trying to assert himself as a black artist into a predominantly white art culture is continuously filtered into the context of his work. Readily juxtaposing images of modern and primitive icons and text, he illustrated how he directly experienced the white bourgeois class identification with commercial black culture.
His volatile relationship with the commercial art world was symbiotic; they required each other to survive. Although there is much documentation on the overtly aggressive nature of the commercial art world, Basquiat appeared to give as good as he got. His ambition and eccentric behavior, coupled only with an obsessive hunger for fame, recognition, and, most of all, hunger for respect, thrust him into the vacuous world of New York in the early 1980s, of where there was little hope of escape. ..let alone, survival.
Ultimately, this exhibition is an exploration of Jean-Michel Basquiat as a person who became one of the most prolific artists of our century.
Michael J. Beam Curator of Exhibitions Castellani Art Museum