Jean Michel Basquiat and civil rights artistry
Sophia Roldán Soto, (Facultad de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Costa Rica, 2022).
Abstract
Jean-Michel Basquiat is one of the most influential artists of the contemporary period. His works filled by a rough handling of material remain an important approach on social justice and a protest act against ancient-elitist forms of creating and critiquing the plastic arts. The aim of this study is to analyze the formal aspects, physical elements, processes, and conceptual ideas that emerge from the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The goal is attained by a reflective study of five pictorial works created between 1980-1984, to understand sociocultural influences on the artist and his importance for art theory studies.
The results explain how he changed the course of modern art through the Neo-expressionism movement. The latter, deeply connected with an honest portrayal of heritage, African- American history, and key demands raised from the civil rights driving force.
Introduction
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was a New York artist known for primitivism, neo- expressionism, and maintaining the influence of city jazz on his pictorial work. Miranda Sawyer (2017) summarizes in her article for The Guardian, that the young artist was born into a family with migrant parents (his Haitian father and his mother with Puerto Rican parents), the middle class in Brooklyn. According to Sawyer, he had a troubled adolescence at home after his parents divorced, his mother was sent to a psychiatric hospital, and the state neglected black communities in New York. These experiences gave rise to the necessary inspiration to begin his artistic career, going through audiovisual productions, music, and graffiti and formally culminating with oil as a technique to execute the neo-expressionist movement.
Audiovisual productions and music coexisted in his adolescence and early adulthood. He and his friend group (high-level artists aspiring men) began to express their creative and political ideas through jazz and hip-hop (Ricard, 1981). These disciplines would later be implemented in his works, taking expressive elements such as the use of primary colors capable of attracting and sustaining the attention from the spectator, just as sounds do in improvisation (this, as an academic and professional sub-discipline of jazz). The painter would maintain a close relationship with music throughout his life, accentuated by the prominent popular culture of New York in the second half of the 20th century and the strengthening of the civil rights movement through the validation and celebration of black art.
Basquiat might have seen a similar duality in his work by combining archaic high-culture jazz and African-descended blues. “[His art was] a dazzling combination of Kooning and subway spray paint scribbles,” gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch said at the outset. And like many highlights of the mid-century jazz generation he revered, Basquiat was largely self-taught in his various endeavors, which included music, preferring to create than explain what he had already done. (Haga, 2019, para. 8)
For his part, graffiti (as part of the duo SAMO ©) and oil paintings would comprise his development as a neo-expressionist artist from his 20s, taking advantage of the use of gestures in this movement to approach pictorial art. As narrated by Dragovic (2009), Basquiat began his artistic career by spray-painting his SAMO© label on subway cars and buildings in SoHo, along with slogans such as "SAMO AS AN ANTI-ART FORM" and "THE WHOLE LINE OF FREE BE SO BOW WITH THE BIG MONEY ALL CRUSHED UNDER THESE FEET." Many of these seemed to mock the New Yorker avant-garde scene, especially its exclusive and elitist art world, where, ironically, Basquiat would enter and conquer little after his graffiti heyday. In addition, much of this street art also mocked consumer culture, so the copyright symbol next to SAMO “is probably commenting on forms of ownership in public spaces, pointing out the ridiculousness of corporate logos and their omnipresence in the city (Dragovic, 2009, p.4).
Thus, to offer a wider context to this research, neo-expressionism can be defined as a group of young artists from the 1980s who portrayed the human body in response to the 1970s abstract art, through technical and visual resources found in the abstract movement. Neo-expressionism offered a rejection of traditional standards of composition and design: an ambivalent and often brittle emotional tone that reflected contemporary urban life and values; a general lack of concern for pictorial idealization; and the use of vivid but “jarringly banal” color harmonies for critics belonging to economic elites, who wished to maintain control over the arts through exclusion (Sempéré-Brun, 2021; Fretz, 2010). All of this ran through Basquiat as an artist.
In this sense, the objective of the present work is to analyze the formal aspects, physical elements, processes, and conceptual ideas that emerge from the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat. This, focusing on a reflective study of five pictorial works created between 1980-1984 to understand the sociocultural influences on the artist and his importance for contemporary society. To achieve the goal, the research is divided into five sections: I) Bracco di Ferro (anatomy and humanization of the black person); II) Pez Dispenser (cultural rights of Afro-descendants); III) Irony of the Negro Policeman (neo-expressionism and denunciation against racism); V) Dark race horse (street art and the re-appropriation of black-excellence); and Conclusions.
I) Artistic anatomy and humanization of the black person: Bracco di Ferro (1983)
Bracco di Ferro is a painting made on linen canvas held by four exposed crossbars, seeking to resemble a stretcher to challenge the traditional pre-prepared canvas (Christie's Gallery, 2013) (see Annex 1). The painting intensely combines the colors black, yellow, and shiny silver, so that the figure of a human torso is built on the contrast between the three colors. Both arms, the spine, and ribs, different internal organs are formed and complemented with text, leaving the heart outside (see Annex 2). In this way, what is observed is a very energetic X-ray picture, which highlights the fascination that Basquiat felt for the human body after a car accident at the age of eight that left him in hospital for a month due to internal injuries and a broken arm. Likewise, it is an expression of the decolonization of the Afro body.
Fragmented and schematic representations of the human body have their roots in Grey's Anatomy, a gift from his mother that, among other experiences, helped him subsume these events and make them an important part of his artistic inspiration (Christie's Gallery, 2013). Despite, the painting also denotes a highly accurate subtext about racism. The choice of the crossbars and the raw interpretation on the human body is part of his denunciation concerning state abandonment in neighborhoods where mainly Afro-descendant, migrant and poor people lived (Leonheart, 2015). Certain sections of black skin (literally painted in black oils) are more detailed, highlighting the folds on the hands, knuckles, joints, and vasculature in bright red, demonstrating Basquiat's extensive knowledge about bodily structure, but also about expressionist gestures used to claim and celebrate African-American bodies.
Basquiat had a dual relationship with identity. On the one hand, he wanted his audience and critics to avoid the racialization of artists and, on the other, he wanted blackness to be difficult to ignore in his works. Afro-descendants historically challenged the canons of beauty throughout the American continent, not without having to overcome symbolic violence to reject their bodies and, consequently, their art, causing their artistic proposals to be classified as "vulgar", "primitive" and “without any sense”. For this reason, Basquiat works on gestures and the impression of words that reflect the composition of the human and Afro body, from the literal (arm, ribs, eye) to the most figurative (corpus in Latin, blood in Spanish), a practice that is visualized in Bracco di Ferro (Fretz, 2010).
In the context of Black Lives Matter, Basquiat's work is especially relevant to the movement, following a broad line of American and international artists who clamor for respect and love for black bodies, their cultural heritage, and their future on stage. social, political, and cultural. “It is evident that Bracco di Ferro is an exhibition on police discrimination and mistreatment of blacks in the city, and this exhibitionism is common in Basquiat's art” (Dragovic, 2009, p.3). Having opened the analysis with these general axes, it is possible to continue with the following selected works.
II) Hip-hop, jazz, pop-art and the cultural rights of Afro-descendants: Pez Dispenser (1984)
With humanization, also comes the recognition of tangible and intangible elements that make up the identity heritage of a specific population, a task that can be appreciated in Pez Dispenser. The painting consists of a black Tyrannosaurus Rex on a white background, with its spines and a short shadow around its head in bright yellow and different shades of red. Hovering over the dinosaur, Basquiat added his leitmotiv: the golden crown (see Exhibit 3), which emphasizes the reign of the Tyrannosaurus in the Jurassic world. The dinosaur has red eyes and sharp white teeth, keeping in a body posture similar to that of hieroglyphics, and a curved red line shapes the trunk, as if corresponding to an exoskeleton. Basquiat references elements of popular culture, bringing the “Pez” candy dispenser into the conversation, but the choice of color and the position of the crown illuminate another part of the conversation.
According to the Jean-Michel Basquiat Organization website (2021):
It is fair to say that throughout his career, Basquiat elevated the symbol of the crown to a profound and archetypal status and that for him it was a symbol of the class struggle and financial inequality that he documented throughout his life.
This suggests that with this artwork, Basquiat may be trying to link popular consumer culture (perpetuated by well-known companies like Pez) with class oppression and social inequality. (paras. 8-9)
On a period when black culture was gaining popularity among white audiences, thanks to hip- hop and breakdancing, the presence of black artists had to be built on empowerment, so as to prevent them from becoming a mere object of consumption without creative and identity autonomy. “Hip-hop music plays with dance and energy; however, as a genre, it has always been deftly aware of human unpredictability, especially in regards to law enforcement and power structures” (Becklehimer, 2020, para. 4). For this reason, Basquiat's crowns and drawing on elements of power in popular culture were a key axis of his art and his reputation as an artist on the rise, both among mainstream art audiences and among African-American art audiences on the East side. and Brooklyn (Fretz, 2010; Jaume, 2016; Inside Edition, 2019; The Broad Museum, 2021).
Basquiat's crown, likewise, began to represent confidence in his influence as an artist, proclaiming himself a king similar to the Pez Dispenser Tyrannosaurus . This is a reading made by numerous neo-expressionist art appreciators, but it also corresponds to the statements he made in interviews with critics or columnists who showed internalized racism with his questions. “Basquiat was not afraid to let it be known that he wanted to be part of a larger artistic environment. As boldly proclaimed, and fittingly symbolically: “I am not a real person. I am a legend” (Taylor, 2022, para. 8). This manifestation continues to be of great importance for the African-American civil and artistic rights movements, which, with the rise of the ultra- conservative right wing, have had to face pejorative categories and new thrusts into structural and symbolic violence.
III) Neo-expressionism as a denunciation of racism: Irony of the Black Policeman (1981)
Now, the analysis goes back to 1981 to describe and understand one of his various works portraying the use of force against the Afro-descendant population: Irony of the Black Policeman (see Annex 4). This painting bears the title written to the right of the main figure, as is usual for Basquiat, and depicts a man on a white background, wearing the classic ultramarine blue police uniform, the outline of a boot, and the gold plate on the chest. Similar to Bracco di Ferro, it represents the veins and arteries as if they were visible through (or despite) the uniform, which is also sectioned in half to reveal the ribs and bones of the torso inside of it. This fracture could be interpreted as a political statement against African-Americans who decide to belong to an oppressive force, dominated precisely by white elites who seek to protect their interests by denying human dignity, from control and surveillance to labor rights, education, and artistic freedom (Fretz, 2010).
The policeman's face is painted in black, with an expression that is more reminiscent of a skull: round eyes, wide open, with red outlines and yellow pupils (showing surprise, anger, or perhaps pain and shock), the nose is triangular and the mouth completely rectangular, showing the teeth as if the jaw had been broken. Combining abstract lines behind the policeman's head to form a hat, showing the sleeves and one of the trouser legs torn, revealing dark-hued hands and feet.
On his cadaverous face, which is imprisoned by a hat that imitates a cage, a palette of colors more related to the clowns’ shine, such as red and yellow. The cage, on the other hand, seems to refer to the very imprisonment that belonging to the police force means. Another important point of the work is the white background, which not only serves to highlight the figure, but also works as a metaphor: the policeman also moves in an environment that is not his own. (La belleza del día: “Irony of the Black Policeman”, by Jean-Michel Basquiat, June 17, 2020)
Irony is one of his many works denouncing state violence and the use of force against racialized populations in the 70's and 80's, finding the participation of Afro-descendant men in a body as racist as the police tremendously ironic. In 1983, Basquiat painted a rather explicit political piece called "Defacement" in response to the death of his friend Michael Stewart, a graffiti artist, at the hands of police violence. Now, in the 2020s era of the Black Lives Matter movement, "Defacement" sadly remains a calling card for US law enforcement (Becklehimer, 2020).
The work combines neo-expressionism with graffiti, alluding to the hyper-securitization of neighborhoods in conditions of social and ethnic vulnerability, and also to the masculinity of African-American men, a high point of debate in anti-racist feminism. and of white critics' perception of Basquiat as a black artist. Authors such as Ramírez (2015), due to the rawness of the emotions in paintings similar to those of Irony and the use of resources such as skulls (attributed to Aztec art), have classified Basquiat's art within primitivism. However, it corresponds to a category often used to discredit their proposals, the art of indigenous peoples, and weaponize drug use against oppressed artists, the latter being one of the components that white elites have created as a stereotype of black masculinities to perpetuate segregation reinforced by the 13th Amendment in the United States. Therefore, the technical skill of the paintings and the strength of their message are ignored.
IV) Street art and the re-appropriation of black-excellence: Dark Race Horse (1983)
The latest work of analysis is an X-ray of the foot of Jesse Owens, athlete and Olympic medalist who challenged the Nazi discourse of the "Aryan race" at the 1936 Olympic Games. The piece outlines one of the lower extremities of the runner, from the tips of the fingers and nails to the calf, drawing white borders to contrast the background (where the color black is the same as that of Owens's leg) and light orange. This technique makes the ankle stand out, as well as the creases of skin on the instep and the pressure points on the first three phalanges. The red crayon is used in the curvatures to intensify the gestures of the painting. On each side of the calf, he added forward-pointing arrows, and below the foot the sign "1936" surrounded by a rectangle in white and red, like a plaque, and the five Olympic rings. The legends “JESSE OWENS”, 14. JESSE OWENS, 1936 OLYMPICS, JESSE OWENS [BERLIN and “1936 - BERLIN” are repeated on the lower edge of the painting, as if they were engraved on oxidized metal.
As in all his work, the painting combines street art and expressionism to create several layers, something that is not so easy to recognize due to the small number of colors used in this piece. Beginning the most dramatic stage of his growth as an artist and influencer, “Basquiat quickly realized that his fame provided him with a unique opportunity to highlight others who were overlooked by his peers,” which he did. for Jesse Owens (Mutrie, 2022, para. 6). This had a double purpose: of course, to recognize African-American talent, and also to reappropriate "black excellence", a concept created within the civil rights movement and later sullied by white elites who wanted to create impossible standards for “model black citizens”.
Janice Gassam Asare (2021) exposes:
Black exceptionalism is often used to justify black humanity. After the murder of George Floyd, the story of McClain (a 23-year-old man killed by the police in Aurora, Colorado) gained greater visibility on social networks; many demanded the arrest of the officers involved. McClain was repeatedly described as a "kind" and "kind" person who spent time in shelters caring for animals. The emphasis again was that a black person who exhibits these positive traits does not deserve to be hurt.
This narrative is problematic because it reinforces the notion that a black person who has engaged in wrongdoing or crime does not deserve humanity. It propagates the idea that blacks only deserve humanity if they are exceptional, charitable, and do-gooders. Under this belief, a black person who has made mistakes is irredeemable. (para. 2)
Although racism and structural violence are the norm in the history of the American continent, the social tensions of the 1980s were especially personal to Basquiat after the murder of Michael Stewart and the constant raids in Brooklyn that almost exclusively targeted African- American neighborhoods and Latinos in the midst of the intensification of the “war on drugs” public policy. Basquiat brought black heroes like Malcolm X and Charlie Parker, Jesse Owens and Billie Holiday into his visual epic; heroes whose presence “evoked the grim history of minorities segregated in ghettos and perhaps exploited by a false sense of Yankee pride” (Dragovic, 2009). In short, citizens who –even being part of the excellence– were kept under oppression despite their achievements and behaviors.
Recognizing these elements must continue to be recognized and disseminated among audiences that reduce Basquiat's inspiration to Eurocentric standards, which focus on the white artists who influenced some of his work, while ignoring the influence of African-American artists. In the words of Bell Hooks (1993): These other elements are lost precisely because they are often not seen, or if they are seen, they are not understood. His work meets different eyes in different ways. Looking at the work from a Eurocentric perspective, one sees and values only those aspects that mimic white familiar Western artistic traditions. Looking at the work from a more inclusive point of view, viewers would be able to see the dynamism that arises from the convergence, contact, and conflict of diverse traditions embodied by black heroisms.
Since its participation as part of SAMO©, street art and graffiti served as challenging tools against academic and artistic discourses on the creativity of Afro-descendants and the impenetrable monolith that had been built in the artistic community of New York. However, the heroes who starred in his paintings were interpreted by critics as mere references, taking each piece within its individuality instead of uniting it to the concepts that were being widely developed by the artist, within identity issues that were complex for him. and contradictory.
V) Conclusions
The art of Jean-Michel Basquiat is built on messages and inspirations loaded with identity components, which challenged the manifestations of force and violence together with the white gaze of the art academy that limited the quality of the interpretations of his work. But, the quality of their pieces is not based solely on them. Basquiat significantly promoted neo- expressionism and street art by composing strong colors with the unique vivacity and urban feeling of the New York artistry. Besides, he channeled the presence of a recognizable aura that never yielded to the pressure of traditionalist critics (who were said to be independent of any political context to calm down or ignore social denunciation). Likewise, the gestures became his brand. He is a prominent name in popular culture, which exerted a structural change in the world of plastic art.
The work carried out by Basquiat has faced a series of controversies that, although are linked to the general rejection of contemporary art to a certain extent, also intruded into his personal life. Despite the desire to reduce Basquiat's proposal with the labels of primitivism and drug addiction, the convergence of African-American, African and Aztec techniques together with musical elements and heroism, undoubtedly expanded the frontiers of the 80s avant-garde. Basquiat was concerned throughout his career with underlining the valuable contribution that the men and women of the African diaspora made to the community, and that changed the perception that the hegemonies had about their participation and leadership in history: the renaissance of Harlem, the movement for civil rights, the global work to end slavery, human trafficking and colonialism, and the place they should be given: as main characters, leaders.
As Bell Hooks interpreted, the "ugliness" and the "grotesque" in his work is exactly what it should be, to combat a policy of dehumanization from his skill as an artist. “In his work, the colonization of the black body and mind is marked by the anguish of abandonment, estrangement, dismemberment, and death. Because what Basquiat exposes is the ugliness of those traditions. It takes the Eurocentric valuation of what is “great” and what is “beautiful” and demands that we acknowledge the reality that it actually masks.
VI) References
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Gassam-Asare, J. (1 de agosto, 2021). Our Obsession With Black Excellence Is Harming Black People. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2021/08/01/our- obsession-with-black-excellence-is-harming-black-people/?sh=2271f9102fd9
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Sophia Roldán-Soto