Basquiat...

....good, bad, hero or devil? I'm reading a book about him and LEE is quoted as saying his paintings were like "a curse." And that people have a need or desire to be cursed at. I thought that was an interesting comment and observation. Is your graffiti a curse, a blessing?

 

Also, Basquiat (or as Robert Hughes refers to him as Basketcase) pretty much dismissed trad graff and felt his pigeon-holing into the graff world was a form of racism. I say Basquiat was too quick to dismiss graff and if he had eyes as big as his vision he would have seen that graff is much bigger, grander than "art." It is much holier to be a graffiti writer than an artist, IMO. Graffiti writers are the witch doctors of society, artists are the auto mechanics. But I do believe that art can be (at times) a valid form of graffiti, but this is a pretty rare occurence.

 

-bankrupt cause i got no money left, left money in my right pocket

basquiat was dope but he burned out.

 

all that aside, his graffiti was never traditional graffiti in the first place...it was more like poetry or conceptual art. he never was a traditional graffiti artist which is why he was so defensive about being called one. even other graffiti writers that he was friends with thought of him as a painter, not a graffiti writer.

 

basquiat wanted to be a famous artist pretty much from the beginning, and if that is your goal it does kind of hurt your career to be thought of as a graffiti artist. the reason is that a lot of people believe that graffiti doesn't belong on canvas (and rightly so). a lot of artists that do graffiti on canvas get pigeon-holed as a "graffiti painter" and if they ever try to venture outside of that, it is very difficult to get other people to take their work seriously...not that any of that really matters, cause basquiat never wanted to be a graffiti writer in the first place.

Originally posted by KASTsystem

basquiat was dope but he burned out.

 

all that aside, his graffiti was never traditional graffiti in the first place...it was more like poetry or conceptual art. he never was a traditional graffiti artist which is why he was so defensive about being called one. even other graffiti writers that he was friends with thought of him as a painter, not a graffiti writer.

 

basquiat wanted to be a famous artist pretty much from the beginning, and if that is your goal it does kind of hurt your career to be thought of as a graffiti artist. the reason is that a lot of people believe that graffiti doesn't belong on canvas (and rightly so). a lot of artists that do graffiti on canvas get pigeon-holed as a "graffiti painter" and if they ever try to venture outside of that, it is very difficult to get other people to take their work seriously...not that any of that really matters, cause basquiat never wanted to be a graffiti writer in the first place.

well all i have to say is that, the reason he got so famous was all a lie, you see he use graffiti into the art world, he was never a graff wirters, i was there and i know the true, if it wasn't for graffiti he would have never been famous, that's what lee means with his quotes!

Originally posted by thouking

well all i have to say is that, the reason he got so famous was all a lie, you see he use graffiti into the art world, he was never a graff wirters, i was there and i know the true, if it wasn't for graffiti he would have never been famous, that's what lee means with his quotes!

 

true. basquiat got famous from his SAMO graffiti that he did with Al Diaz (a friend of his from school). His paintings did have some elements of graffiti in them...but his paintings had so many more elements in them in addition to the graffiti references. For example, there was a lot of human anatomy, famous black athletes and musicians, abstract expressionism, cartoons, poetry, signs, symbols, and concepts. So even though the graffiti got him recognized, graffiti is really only one small element of his canvasses.

Originally posted by KASTsystem

 

true. basquiat got famous from his SAMO graffiti that he did with Al Diaz (a friend of his from school). His paintings did have some elements of graffiti in them...but his paintings had so many more elements in them in addition to the graffiti references. For example, there was a lot of human anatomy, famous black athletes and musicians, abstract expressionism, cartoons, poetry, signs, symbols, and concepts. So even though the graffiti got him recognized, graffiti is really only one small element of his canvasses.

i agree with you 110%, but ass graff goes he had the smarts to know to hang on to something that was new to the world, so if it wasn't for graffiti he would have never became a well known artist, so what i'm saying to you is that the art world been lie too! that's all, if i was an art collector, i would hunt down an "intop" art work cause in this here game of graffiti, in show everyone of us what was to be a king, an original, i don't take anything from basquiat as far as being an artist, but the truth is yet to be told, only if they knew the real, what about a jester come on now you want real history, who can say that they have an original, well i can, but i do respect the man as an artist!

HE BANGED MADONNA!!! NUFF SAID!

i liked the dowtown 81 film and i looked at him more as a poet using the walls as his paper as a writer uses the walls as his canvas. when looking at his art however i can honestly say that i think its shit. i mean in that film where hes doodling in the rich womans picture book. what the hell was that? i got the impression that he was just a really unskilled artist attempting to be an artist. he succeeded in becoming famous and i give him credit for that but from another artist's point of view, he has very little to offer art wise. believe me i didn't just write him off, i've given his art numerous chances by looking through books while chilling in borders but i couldn't find anything that interested me at all. it was like a kids coloring book with unrelated words that try to give you an impression that he was deep. on some other shit, but i think he fell real short.

 

on a side note my friends rich uncle has an original basquiat and my friend used to throw greasy porkchops at it and smear shit over it. to tell you the truth even with food and mustard splattered all over it, the painting actually looked better.

Originally posted by serum

i liked the dowtown 81 film and i looked at him more as a poet using the walls as his paper as a writer uses the walls as his canvas. when looking at his art however i can honestly say that i think its shit. i mean in that film where hes doodling in the rich womans picture book. what the hell was that? i got the impression that he was just a really unskilled artist attempting to be an artist. he succeeded in becoming famous and i give him credit for that but from another artist's point of view, he has very little to offer art wise. believe me i didn't just write him off, i've given his art numerous chances by looking through books while chilling in borders but i couldn't find anything that interested me at all. it was like a kids coloring book with unrelated words that try to give you an impression that he was deep. on some other shit, but i think he fell real short.

 

on a side note my friends rich uncle has an original basquiat and my friend used to throw greasy porkchops at it and smear shit over it. to tell you the truth even with food and mustard splattered all over it, the painting actually looked better.

lol lol lol i must agree with you my brother, when i said that the art world been lie too i was not playing, but yet again i guess is the people that he hang out with that got him in, so the art collectors will relize it, but he not alone in this so call i'm a graffiti writer wantnabe artist shit, if you would know the true history of this art form, you would know that just because you did a few wholecars, or you happen to be around when some of the movies was shot, don't mean that they are truly writers, graffiti was more then i use to write on the new york city subway trains, only the true legends kings icon, and poieers, which they are many that don't get the credit that is due to them, people like noc167, jester, vinny, and i could go on and on, how much would think a real collector of this art form would get if they only knew the truth, i'm not disrespecting any one, but how long more are we going to sit back, and let these wantnabees i was king of this or king of that continues to lie and use this game that many of us have given our lifes too! peace and respect to all ciamen toprinters rtworold rocstars 4real true skool kings!

Originally posted by thouking

when i said that the art world been lie too i was not playing

 

why do you think he got so tight with Warhol?

 

Still, I've said it before and I suppose I'll say it again, BUT, the MAIN thing to grasp about the film Basquiat is that it was made by Julian Schnabel, a contemporary of JMB's but NOT a friend, still both JS and JMB were heavily into the whole Warhol concept of 'pop art'... as far as graff art... eh... Basquiat never kinged nothin'... he also OD'ed right about the time he was gonna get fully pushed so... many see this as a tragedy but I kinda view it as the fruition of the self-destructive cycle JMB had already subscribed to... it's alot harder to stick around and be relevant for 50 years than it is to blow up and die... some can truly claim status of lost before their time, Dondi, Jimi, Brautagin... others just don't quite clear the bar, and that's where I put JMB...

 

on a side note, I happened to be in St. Petersburg when the Dali museum had a Warhol exhibit and some of the Andy/Basquiat stuff was there... one of the pieces with the big Texaco logo... I touched it... I've touched alot of really famous pieces of art over the years (in museums and such).. I know it's wrong because the oils in skin are potentially destructive to the paint, but I always load up from the side of my nose and try to lay a nice (though 'invisible') fingerprint on them... I did it long before I knew about DNA but I feel rad each time I do it because I know I'm depositing DNA on the work, like becoming part of it...

Smart, you art molester...:crazy:

i used to think little of basquiat's stuff,

but lately its given me goosepimply's...

Originally posted by Cracked Ass

Smart, you art molester...:crazy:

 

 

hehehe, I confess...

 

:confused: :o :dazed:

Originally posted by KASTsystem

basquiat was dope but he burned out.

 

all that aside, his graffiti was never traditional graffiti in the first place...it was more like poetry or conceptual art. he never was a traditional graffiti artist which is why he was so defensive about being called one. even other graffiti writers that he was friends with thought of him as a painter, not a graffiti writer.

 

basquiat wanted to be a famous artist pretty much from the beginning, and if that is your goal it does kind of hurt your career to be thought of as a graffiti artist. the reason is that a lot of people believe that graffiti doesn't belong on canvas (and rightly so). a lot of artists that do graffiti on canvas get pigeon-holed as a "graffiti painter" and if they ever try to venture outside of that, it is very difficult to get other people to take their work seriously...not that any of that really matters, cause basquiat never wanted to be a graffiti writer in the first place.

 

and let's remember that there is no such thing as traditional graffiti, as graffiti acts more like a medium than a acutal, true to life, art form.

He was a genius no doubt. But he bit alot of stuff from all sorts of sources. Like Grays Anatomy for example. I see him as more of a poet painter then a painter. With SAMO he very briefly got his foot int he door of the art world. He managed to get tight with Andy Warhol and that's when his career took a giant leap up and he started making headlines. Once Andy died, he sank to a deep level of depression his popularity for the moment waned. I think he didn't want to be racially fenced in with being a Black Graffiti writer his whole life and not being taken seriously as a painter. He even said when some reporter asked him that it was just something he did as a teenager.

 

This is just how I see it folks that's it.

 

Peace Love and Deodorant

Basquiat fucked Madonna

Originally posted by Smart

Basquiat fucked Madonna

 

before it bacame passe. these days that aint much of an achievement

I have respect for the guy...he did what he did...somehow he blew up...and paid the ultimate price..which is death.

Originally posted by Mr. ABC

before it bacame passe. these days that aint much of an achievement

 

true, true... let's keep in mind that he died in '88... this had to happen in her 'borderline/desperately seeking' stage

 

and he paid the 'ultimate price' for an addiction to heroin and such, not for any artistic reasons... in the end, it isn't an 'utimate price', it's the ultimate tax... it's something we assume is the same for every human, but what if you can get like 'death defects' where you die and all, but you've got 6 tits or something...

Jean was one of many in Madonna's stable. And they did it back in the daze before she blew up worldwide.

 

I remember seeing posters downtown in the village where it said COST FUCKED MADONNA LOL really funny shit.

 

Oh well

 

Peace Love and Deodorant Ya'll

Smart,that's what I meant.....you see soooo many get caught up in that shit when they get into the limelight...he might have been into the shit before he got "huge"...I don't know...I think he went through too much too fast...and it finally caught up to him.