Jean Michel Basquia Essay

Jean Michel Basquiat was an American artist born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 22, 1960 (Henry, 2005). With a HaitianAmerican father and a Puerto Rican mother, Basquiat's diverse cultural heritage and his mother desire to show him art since he was little, were some sources of his inspiration. He is best known for his primitive style and his collaboration with pop artist Andy Warhol (Henry, 2005). Basquiat's work is an example of how American artists of the 1980s could reintroduce the human figure in their work in a simple way (Taka, 1997). The originality of his works, its emotional depth, and bold messages are some reasons that made him unique.

Jean Michel Basquiats paintings are original because it gives to the viewers a strong street art style and feeling of rebellion. His art is a host of disparate traditions, practices, and styles, one deriving, in part, from his urban origins, and another part, more distant, his heritage.

Basquiat repeated themes in his paintings, expressing his ideas in a different and intellectually way, his goal wasnt to show off how skillful he was but to take the chance to communicate what he was feeling at the moment.

The emotions in Basquiats paintings are very deep. First at all it wasnt easy being black in a mainly white art community. JeanMichel Basquiat had to overcome more than any other artist of his time.

The color black in his paintings is very common as Basquiat has pointed out, represents two things A race of people, which in this case is the African American or black if you will, and also represents the color of oppression, dark, gloomy and no light whatsoever (Henry, 2005). In some Basquiats paintings, he hints that corruption and abuse that it is directly linked with greed and capitalism. He used symbols and concepts to imply that these were the reasons of the mistreatment and manipulation of pure and innocent peoples and ideals (Fred, 2005). In one of Basquiats painting Untitled, we can see that it is almost entirely in three bland colors black, white, and dark blue.

The painting represents a prisoner flanked by two uniformed men, presumably police 

Officers, as the hats and the star badge assert. The contrast between the prisoner and the officers is direct the prisoner is black the officers are white, thus the racial overtones are clear. Faceless white cops have arrested and imprisoned a black man. 

The people who Basquiat refers to in his paintings were people abused, stolen from, and violated, people that didnt believe in Christian faith (Fred, 2005). This also shows the use of religion to manipulate and abuse people.

Basquiat bold and defiant messages make his paintings express anger and contempt towards the human condition, and also hostility for the exploitation and corruption of the innocent people for money gain through the use of power like religion. The placement of words and symbols in Basquiats paintings dont look so important, but those words always have a deep meaning