A while back I started doing some skecthes and small watercolours of Jean Michel Basquiat who is one of my favourite artists of all time. I dont mean he is my favourite painter because it is impossible to have a favourite painter like its impossible to have a single favourite song there is too many genres to fit with with different feeling on different days. He is my favourite artist. His story is heroic and tragic and covered in paint and success in an amazing era. I was born in the year when Basquiat hit it big in New York and became one of the most influential artists to revolutionise the art and design we see today. Graffiti and Hiphop and dance were united as a cultural revolution and were for the first time taken seriously as the most honest and direct means of artistic creation. The real artists living in low life made a business and lifestyle around what they loved and to me thats everything. Neo Expressionism was born and spat attitude on gallery walls and made a path for wilder idea to be accepted in music and art. Basquiat to me was a real artist. He lived every minute he lived as an artist. It wasnt just a job or something he was trained to do. He wanted to find fame with it and he did as does every artist. Not every painter or designer wants fame they are happy to work from the shadows but I think the artist is always happy to find fame. Thats the link of music, art and dance as was created with Basquiat, Fab 5 Freddy and Keith Harring to name a few. Each of the Neo Expressionists were music, art and dance rolled into one and they all came up together and made a scene thats evolved ever since.
I have been reading Basquiat A Quick Killing In Art by Phoebe Hoban since last Christmas. Im reading it bit by bit like a Bible. If ya read about the crazy life of an artist I say get this book its so good. Anyways I will be posting more basquiat watercolours and sketches up soon.
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