Basquiat’s Inspiration and Love for Music
“Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time”
Albums by the Velvet Underground, James Brown, Kraftwerk, Lou Reed, Sugar Hill Gang, Fela Kuti, Black Uhuru, Duke Ellington, Curtis Mayfield, Madonna, Ornette Coleman, George Clinton, Grace Jones, Afrika Bambaataa and nearly every early David Bowie recording.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City. The second of four children to Matilde Andrades and Gérard Basquiat. His father was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and his mother was born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents. He was raised Catholic.
Jean-Michel, was hit by a car while playing in the street at the age of seven, in 1968. After his parents separated that year, Basquiat and his sisters were raised by their father.
By the age of eleven, Basquiat was fluent in French, Spanish and English, and an avid reader of all three languages.
He ran away from home at 15 when his father caught him smoking cannabis in his room. He was living in the streets, sleeping on park benches. Not long after, the police arrested him and returned him home to his father.
Basquiat dropped out of high school, leading to him getting kicked out of his house by his father as punishment. He supported himself by staying with friends in Brooklyn while selling t-shirts and homemade postcards.
In April 1979, Basquiat met Michael Holman at the Canal Zone Party and they founded the Noise rock band Test Pattern, which was later renamed Gray (which took its name from the book Gray’s Anatomy, which he had been given by his mother while recovering from the car accident)
“Noise rock is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that took off from punk rock in the 1980s. Creating movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore.”
Basquiat, then working under the pseudonym SAMO (SAMe Old shit), with his friend Al Diaz, showed up to an event to participate as a graffiti artist. He revealed his identity and asked Holman if he wanted to form a band.
Later that year, he began filming Glenn O'Brien's independent film Downtown 81 (2000), originally a film that was shot in 1980-1981 which featured some of Gray's recordings on its soundtrack.
He frequently collaborated with musicians and incorporated music into his exhibitions. Basquiat's use of jazz in his artwork was not just an artistic choice, but a reflection of his personal identity and passion for jazz.
One of the most important jazz figures for Basquiat was Charlie Parker, he was drawn to Parker's innovative improvisational style, which he mirrored in his own art by improvising and spontaneously creating images on the canvas.
Another of the many jazz figures that inspired Jean-Michel, was Charles Mingus. His influence can be seen in his use of text and language in his paintings. Like Mingus music, Basquiat's paintings often incorporated elements of language and text, from handwritten notes and phrases to more complex layers of text and imagery.
“Bird on Money”
1981
Paying homage to Charlie “Bird” Parker
1981
Paying homage to Charlie “Bird” Parker
He often incorporated text, including poetry, prose, and song lyrics, that alluded to jazz music and the cultural and political issues of his time.
The sampling and chopping of tunes and rhymes in hip-hop is a direct inspiration behind the technique of his work Toxic from 1984. Here, Basquiat used the copies of his drawings that he cut into pieces and collaged them again into a new art piece.
“Toxic”
1984
1984
Basquiat’s use of text to the way a DJ scratches a record, using previously recorded material to make a new sound. In terms of Hip-hop the crossing out of words in the paintings of Basquiat is akin of scratching.
So, this correlation with the crossing out of words in Basquiat painting, taking something pre-existing, simple as a word and remixing to create something new.
“King Zulu”
1986
Represents the trumpeters Bix Beiderbecke, Bunk Johnson and Howard McGhee, and a face inspired by Louis Armstrong disguised as a Zulu king at Mardi Gras in 1949.
Understanding the art of Jean-Michel depends in part on
understanding his lifelong involvement with music, which was literally
his working ambient.1986
Represents the trumpeters Bix Beiderbecke, Bunk Johnson and Howard McGhee, and a face inspired by Louis Armstrong disguised as a Zulu king at Mardi Gras in 1949.
Basquiat used his art to bring attention to police brutality and racism in America, drawing parallels between the treatment of Black people and the injustices that occurred during apartheid in South Africa.
A poet, stylist, sculptor and, especially, musician before he became a painter, He placed himself within New York’s African-American cultural heritage, linking himself to an artistic lineage with no equivalent in the fine art world.
“Horn Players”
1983
1983
Leaving us at a young age of 27. Basquiat's work serves as a testament to the transformative power of art, and the ways in which it can bridge cultural divides and bring people together.
Bringing together an extraordinary ensemble of almost one hundred artworks. Basquiat remains an exponent in not only art, but almost everything that has a creative process.
To this day, his work is highly sought-after by art collectors from around the world, with pieces regularly commanding a price of tens of thousands of dollars.
The dichotomy of Ruido.
A moment in the present.
Indulge in the music of culture.
A moment in the present.
Indulge in the music of culture.