By the age of just 20, street graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat had already taken the New York art scene by storm. This was the early 1980s and it must have helped that he had made friends with Andy Warhol and other pop-culture artists of the day (Madonna, Blondie). But Basquiat was a ground-breaking artist on his own, known not only for his subversive style – he was largely responsible for bringing colourful graffiti to the mainstream art world – but also for confronting society’s imbalances, racism and class struggles head on. Using his paintbrush “as a weapon”, he broached these topics in a way that was powerful but not lofty. His works were meant to be accessible and to uncover hard truths no matter how uncomfortable the subject-matter.
Horn Players
From now until May 10, the Art Gallery of Ontario is running Canada’s first-ever major retrospective of his works with Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now’s the Time (the title is taken from the famous Martin Luther King Jr. speech). The exhibit features close to 100 large-scale paintings and drawings from private collections and public museums from North America and Europe. Many are abstract works (including several which are “skull” themed) and Basquiat being a multi-media artist, some incorporate wood, metals and collages. There are also snippets of vocal recordings and a painted vase that he and another famous 80s artist, Keith Haring, collaborated on.
One of the stated goals of the retrospective is to make it not just “for Toronto” but “of Toronto.” As such, a number of upcoming events and community outreach programs aim to draw local artists and various sectors of the Toronto community to the exhibit (beyond the usual AGO crowd). Alas, at the media preview held on February 3, there were local break-dancers on hand, courtesy of Unity Charity, a Toronto organization aimed at empowering youth.
As Canada’s most multicultural city, Toronto would seem to be a fitting host for a retrospective of Basquiat, whose canon of works not only point to issues of race relations and the elimination of oppression; but also celebrate black artists and athletes. One such work is the eye-catchy Horn Players, a three-panel painting which pays homage to jazz greats Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
Untitled
Even with his untimely passing in 1988, Basquiat’s works remain influential on a global scale. It is eerie just how relevant his works are in light of our current social and political climate. His paintings relating to police brutality, the death of New York black graffiti artist Michael Stewart at the hands of NYC police officers, may just as well have been painted last year. Even his work, Oreo, a simple piece of pop art that could be initially dismissed as a Warhol derivative, takes on a deeper meaning when coupled with the subtext “white on the inside, black on the outside.”
Lest there be any self-congratulatory sentiments among us as to how far society has come since Basquiat’s era, AGO director, Matthew Teitelbaum soberly reminded us in his opening remarks, “We are not in a post-Ferguson, Missouri moment; we are in the Ferguson moment. We are not in a post-Charlie Hebdo moment; we are in a Charlie Hebdo moment.” So it seems Basquiat’s social commentary couldn’t be revisited at a better time.
Images are © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York
