What people have to keep in mind when they’re viewing Basquiat’s work is that, when he was about 7 years old recuperating in the hospital, from an automobile accident, his mother bought the book Grey’s Anatomy for him to read and look at. In that book there’re plenty of skeleton figures. Most of Basquiat’s paintings that contain human figures, are skeletal in appearance.
When I see basquiat's work i feel he wanted so badly to live this ideal dream in his head with recognition, having fun with collabs and working on pieces around a energy type of group of artists. He was full of life and then when he was actually there, he hated it! The scene was snobby white aristocratic types of people. He became cynical and felt everyone just wanted money or fame from him. I believe he disconnected from Andy because andy was trying to control too much who he hangs out with. I also believe although he liked women, he had a sexual relationship with Andy because andy was always manipulating people and feeding them with what they want to hear. He wanted to be himself again before he passed and it's obvious as he was going out with his old friends and they found him dead. I think if he had a real friend who felt like family "a man" he could look up to and talk to about anything, he would not have overdosed. He used drugs as a escape from loneliness and even went as far as to reach out to his exes. He needed a father figure and Andy was a user. I mean Edie and candy died in their 20s too and Andy discarded them and his boyfriend who lived with him for a bit. Jean was fresh to Andy and young to try and manipulate. Jean eventually saw this and stopped hanging with him plus andy wanted jean to have a baby with this women he designated?! Jean was a kid still and wanted to be accepted by society as a good artist and he wanted friends and a father. He never had a chance with andy's friends getting him into hard drugs as they did the rest. Jean was a beautiful vibrant young man snuffed out too soon by corruption, that is incredibly sad!
After watching about 50 videos on basquiat I swear I could be one of these curators talking about him. They all say the same thing. Everything they say is like the art world's collective acceptance/understanding of who he was. The guy died at 27 and wasn't even on the seen that long
Hlhi Hlhi okay? My point still stands.. a lot of black people from that time who were into art knows he was because he was a black artist who broke into a mostly white dominated world.
