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拍品专文
Barely twenty-six when he created Negro Period, a three-panel, multi-media work of staggering complexity, Jean-Michel Basquiat was already secure of widespread fame. His meteoric rise within the rarified art world in the early 1980s crossed into the mainstream when he became the subject of a New York Times Magazine article in February 1985; however, despite being the first African American artist to ever enter the major leagues of celebrity, he was plagued by insecurities. Acutely aware of racism through his own encounters and that of others, he was especially concerned about being vaunted as a black artist and being co-opted by the predominantly white art world as a mascot. At the time, his work was often woven within the rhetoric of raw, untamed and "primitive" talent, while its underlying cynicism and subversion was ignored. Negro Period reveals the extent of Basquiat's anxiety and rage about racial inequity.
Lashing out in his art that he described as "80 violence", the psychotically intense text, scrawls and drawn imagery interspersed with expressionistically painted areas on the sheets of paper collaged onto the two red wood panels display the artist's furious physical exertions. Featuring anatomical drawings seemingly culled from medical textbooks (among his prized possessions was a copy of Gray's Anatomy that his mother gave him when he was seven years old) punctuated by black heads Basquiat seems to present a pseudo-scientific analysis of race. That such bigoted classification assumes multi-media pervasiveness is suggested through the layered and overlapping sheets of paper that compete in non-sequitur abutments like the constant bombardment of multiple stimuli of city life. A central motif in Basquiat's oeuvre, rough hewn heads resembling masks or skulls set adrift within in a pulsating, all-over field of linear scribbles became symbolic of the black man making his way through the gritty, cacophonic, urban world. Reacting against the marginalization of black males in society, the artist often invested such totemic visages with "royalty" alluding to various black heroes from different walks of life. Indeed, his personal pantheon of twentieth-century greats included athletes such as Hank Aaron, Mohammed Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson and musicians such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie. Noting that museums and galleries left an entire segment of the population unrepresented, or in some rare cases relegated them to servile depictions, Basquiat sought to elevate the status of the African American male, making his paintings about black people and for black people. Alluding to historical figures through viscerally immediate "primitive" icons constituted both political and personal protest for the artist: the latter because Basquiat himself was searching for a surrogate paternal figure on which to forge his own identity. Linking himself to a legacy of America's black heroes, he finally found the stylized symbolic vocabulary by which to celebrate them. Indeed, the lone black face featured against a pale background on the far right hand panel suggests a conflation of the artist with his heroes, emboldened into a front against the dominantly white world.
Although couched within the rarified nature of fine art, Basquiat's message derived from the street. His unparalleled combination of words, cartoons, drawings, symbols and expressionistic painterly drips that inform Negro Period resemble the graffiti that was central to his earlier incarnation as SAMO from 1977 through 1980. In this guise, Basquiat acted somewhat like an oracle, distilling perceptions of the external world to their essence via spray painted pithy aphorisms on urban edifices. Indeed, the white paper and cream colored panel and the highly textured and collaged surface that form the support of this work mirrors the kinds of backdrops that he might have encountered in the past, invaded by posters, bills and pre-existing graffiti. The scavenged materials that comprise Negro Period evoke the street even more overtly. Conceived on wood panels resembling doors or shutters and using discarded bottle-tops to create an ornamental border, this work has the raw power of hailing directly from the gritty metropolis.
While the graffiti-style that Basquiat employed suited his angry message of civic unrest, he was determined to establish himself as a serious artist, and taught himself art history. He validated his style by employing vetted art historical sources. He greatly admired the work of Cy Twombly, whose fusion of imagery and writing conveyed the disorientation and perpetual onslaught of modern living. Through Twombly, he became exposed to Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks which were filled with disjointed abutments of text and unrelated drawings. Basquiat also channeled Jean Dubuffet, whose deliberately raw, crude style and primitive figuration possessed the immediacy and shorthand of scratched graffiti and whose great brutish sensibility mirrored Basquiat's own. Abstract Expressionism via Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock also featured in the muscular gesturalism of the young artist's work. Finally, Picasso was an important influence; indeed Basquiat seems to have consciously re-appropriated the mask-like face in works such as Negro Period from the Spanish master's citation of African sculpture, although he restores to them a charged African identity that was purged from Modernism's formalist bent. Thus, rather than an ingénue raised from the streets, Basquiat was equipped with complex and sophisticated art historical idioms to articulate his wider socio-political concerns.
Expertly combining graffiti with high art through diverse and ultimately elusive imagery that spreads across its wall-like scale, Negro Period maps the geographical terrain of Basquiat's thoughts and emotions. Reading like a deeply felt political picket, but never falling victim to mere decorativeness, the work is nonetheless unified by its formal prowess. Its mélange of writing, drawing, painting, collage and found objects, Negro Period delivers an aesthetically powerful punch that underscores its fight against racism. Although relatively chromatically restrained, the all-over field of paper featuring linear drawing possesses highlights of color that immediately arrest the eye, and are beautifully framed by the arresting red wood panels. The pale background of the panel on the far right chromatically harmonizes with the left, although its stark austerity strikes a balance with the frenzied visual overload of the left. Wielding a masterful understanding of composition on an immense scale, Basquiat reformulated the format of a triptych for political rather than religious purposes. In doing so, he created an exquisite work of profound relevance.
Famously dressed in a paint-splattered Armani suit and bare feet in the New York Times Magazine article, Basquiat embodied the idea of the noble savage and was painfully aware of his status as a novelty in the art world. Even at the height of his fame, he was often unable to hail a cab in New York City. Negro Period captures the artist's fraught journey trying to make it as an African American in the racially divided moneyed ranks of the 1980s.
Lashing out in his art that he described as "80 violence", the psychotically intense text, scrawls and drawn imagery interspersed with expressionistically painted areas on the sheets of paper collaged onto the two red wood panels display the artist's furious physical exertions. Featuring anatomical drawings seemingly culled from medical textbooks (among his prized possessions was a copy of Gray's Anatomy that his mother gave him when he was seven years old) punctuated by black heads Basquiat seems to present a pseudo-scientific analysis of race. That such bigoted classification assumes multi-media pervasiveness is suggested through the layered and overlapping sheets of paper that compete in non-sequitur abutments like the constant bombardment of multiple stimuli of city life. A central motif in Basquiat's oeuvre, rough hewn heads resembling masks or skulls set adrift within in a pulsating, all-over field of linear scribbles became symbolic of the black man making his way through the gritty, cacophonic, urban world. Reacting against the marginalization of black males in society, the artist often invested such totemic visages with "royalty" alluding to various black heroes from different walks of life. Indeed, his personal pantheon of twentieth-century greats included athletes such as Hank Aaron, Mohammed Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson and musicians such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie. Noting that museums and galleries left an entire segment of the population unrepresented, or in some rare cases relegated them to servile depictions, Basquiat sought to elevate the status of the African American male, making his paintings about black people and for black people. Alluding to historical figures through viscerally immediate "primitive" icons constituted both political and personal protest for the artist: the latter because Basquiat himself was searching for a surrogate paternal figure on which to forge his own identity. Linking himself to a legacy of America's black heroes, he finally found the stylized symbolic vocabulary by which to celebrate them. Indeed, the lone black face featured against a pale background on the far right hand panel suggests a conflation of the artist with his heroes, emboldened into a front against the dominantly white world.
Although couched within the rarified nature of fine art, Basquiat's message derived from the street. His unparalleled combination of words, cartoons, drawings, symbols and expressionistic painterly drips that inform Negro Period resemble the graffiti that was central to his earlier incarnation as SAMO from 1977 through 1980. In this guise, Basquiat acted somewhat like an oracle, distilling perceptions of the external world to their essence via spray painted pithy aphorisms on urban edifices. Indeed, the white paper and cream colored panel and the highly textured and collaged surface that form the support of this work mirrors the kinds of backdrops that he might have encountered in the past, invaded by posters, bills and pre-existing graffiti. The scavenged materials that comprise Negro Period evoke the street even more overtly. Conceived on wood panels resembling doors or shutters and using discarded bottle-tops to create an ornamental border, this work has the raw power of hailing directly from the gritty metropolis.
While the graffiti-style that Basquiat employed suited his angry message of civic unrest, he was determined to establish himself as a serious artist, and taught himself art history. He validated his style by employing vetted art historical sources. He greatly admired the work of Cy Twombly, whose fusion of imagery and writing conveyed the disorientation and perpetual onslaught of modern living. Through Twombly, he became exposed to Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks which were filled with disjointed abutments of text and unrelated drawings. Basquiat also channeled Jean Dubuffet, whose deliberately raw, crude style and primitive figuration possessed the immediacy and shorthand of scratched graffiti and whose great brutish sensibility mirrored Basquiat's own. Abstract Expressionism via Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock also featured in the muscular gesturalism of the young artist's work. Finally, Picasso was an important influence; indeed Basquiat seems to have consciously re-appropriated the mask-like face in works such as Negro Period from the Spanish master's citation of African sculpture, although he restores to them a charged African identity that was purged from Modernism's formalist bent. Thus, rather than an ingénue raised from the streets, Basquiat was equipped with complex and sophisticated art historical idioms to articulate his wider socio-political concerns.
Expertly combining graffiti with high art through diverse and ultimately elusive imagery that spreads across its wall-like scale, Negro Period maps the geographical terrain of Basquiat's thoughts and emotions. Reading like a deeply felt political picket, but never falling victim to mere decorativeness, the work is nonetheless unified by its formal prowess. Its mélange of writing, drawing, painting, collage and found objects, Negro Period delivers an aesthetically powerful punch that underscores its fight against racism. Although relatively chromatically restrained, the all-over field of paper featuring linear drawing possesses highlights of color that immediately arrest the eye, and are beautifully framed by the arresting red wood panels. The pale background of the panel on the far right chromatically harmonizes with the left, although its stark austerity strikes a balance with the frenzied visual overload of the left. Wielding a masterful understanding of composition on an immense scale, Basquiat reformulated the format of a triptych for political rather than religious purposes. In doing so, he created an exquisite work of profound relevance.
Famously dressed in a paint-splattered Armani suit and bare feet in the New York Times Magazine article, Basquiat embodied the idea of the noble savage and was painfully aware of his status as a novelty in the art world. Even at the height of his fame, he was often unable to hail a cab in New York City. Negro Period captures the artist's fraught journey trying to make it as an African American in the racially divided moneyed ranks of the 1980s.