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16 November, 2011

The Life of Jean-Michel Basquiat



When I  think of great artist of our time, their is one person, in my opinion that separates himself from the rest. Jean-Michel Basquiat, who is considered the best graffiti artist of our time. His career in art began as a graffiti artist in  New York city in the late 1970s, and in the 1980s produced Neo-expressionist painting. I've had the chance to check out the documentary about his life, and it seems, this man had unlimited potential, but with a  troubled past and the rise to fame, came paths that lead him to a dark road. At four years old, he was considered gifted and talented. At 15 he ran away from home, and started  supported himself by selling T-shirts and homemade post cards. In 1976, Basquiat and friends Al Diaz and Shannon Dawson began spray-painting graffiti on buildings in Lower Manhattan. Continuing, his activities as a graffiti artist, Basquiat often incorporated words into his paintings. Before his career as a painter began, he produced punk-inspired postcards for sale on the street, and become known for the political-poetical graffiti under the name of SAMO. His paintings are typically covered with text and codes of all kinds: words, letters, numerals, pictograms, logos, map symbols, diagrams and more. What I find fascinating about his work, was his ability to incorporate  the history of black people into his work, which many musical artist such as Madonna, Jay-Z give credit to  today. In his short life, he gave us paintings and impressions that last a life-time. That is why,  I  put him among the elites, such as Van Gogh and Picasso. Having the chance to study him in school and watch his latest documentary a radiant child . I diffidently think he was a child genius, who was ahead of his time, but he was too fragile for this world.

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