Playing to the museum: Jean-Michel Basquiat
- marieajames
- 21 juil. 2015
- 2 min de lecture
Hello friends!
Even though our next and upcoming playground is still on Fight Club disclosure level (you do not talk about the playground), we are willing to break some rules and to tell you that it will bring together play, city planning, collaboration and street art. Nice, huh?
During our research we came across a lot of interesting references and we thought we could start sharing them with you, both as a playground warm up and for your necessary daily dose of inspiration.
Photo: Jean Michel Basquiat by Lizzie Himmel
Our topic of today is Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of the most revolutionary artists of the 1980s whose paintings and drawings are being exhibited since July 3rd in the exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now’s the Time in the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. Basquiat can be seen as the street artist who brought graffiti to the Guggenheim. This is exactly why we think it’s so interesting to reflect on how, in his very short career, Basquiat managed to challenge the art establishment and raise critical questions that are still valid nowadays.
Before the canvas, Basquiat, along with his friend Al Diaz used New York City as his playground. In 1977 “before he came to embody that particularly urbane trinity of poetry, jazz and painting, the Brooklyn prodigy was spray painting cryptic messages on Lower Manhattan buildings under the moniker SAMO © (short for “same old shit”) and selling sweatshirts and postcards emblazoned with his work.” Basquiat didn’t consider himself a street artist but he did use a spray can as tool to “crack open the doors of the art world.”
I guess that we can say that one of the things that made him so special was the way he was connected to the city, the distinctive way he read it and translated it, his unique and provocative way to “bring the poetry of the street into the gallery.”
And if spray paint could change the art world, what else can it do? Can it refresh the way we look at our neighborhoods? Could it influence our city policies? Can it change our lives?
Those pictures are amongst Basquiat’s early works, when he was drawing on the urban landscape for its subject matter, approach and materials. Hope they inspire you!
If you happen to be in Bilbao don’t miss Now’s The Time (because, really, it is!). And read the full article by Alex Hawkins on It’s Nice That: Jean-Michel Basquiat, the artist who brought graffiti to the Guggenheim.
And remember to watch this space because in the next couple of weeks there will be exciting things happening!
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