As I write this post, I am playing Charlie Parker, one of Basquiat’s favorite artists. I recently went to Jean Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure and found this intimate show curated by the artists family to be very moving. The exhibit is all original works of Basquiat including early works from his childhood.
Basquiat is one of my favorite artists and that is not based on simply visuals. He followed his vision, didn’t try to be anything but himself. He used what he had- found canvases, objects- the upcycling for the sake of art. When asked why he used certain colors of paint he would say It was what he had.
This exhibit shares his very early drawings as a child, shows intimate home movies projected on rooms re-created to look like his family home, and also re-creates his first art studio as well as the Palladium’s Michael Todd Room. Seeing his bicycle displayed was rather haunting, I could imagine him biking through SoHo to Pearl Paints or garbage picking some objects to use in his work.
It’s a unique show and to see more photos that I took please visit the album I created on the Stencil1 Facebook page. Enjoy!