Episode 70: The Artist - Jean - Michel Basquiat
Transcript
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Welcome to the Push Or Pivot podcast, a podcast that inspires you to trust yourself and the crossroads of life. I'm your host, Thea Charles. As a life coach. I know that when you put fear aside and trust yourself, you'll know when to push through adversity, and when to stop, reassess, and pivot.
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I believe magic happens whenever a push or pivot story is shared. And that magic is exactly what you'll find here.
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A few years ago, my husband and I stroll through the underground inkblot in Boston, admiring the street art. This Oasis under the highway humbled us as we looked at all the art around us, looking for street art and cool graffiti became a pastime of ours when we go on vacation, and we were finally exploring at home. Every time I get to view this type of art, or hear people talk about Banksy. I wonder if this would be as popular if we didn't have Jean Michel Basquiat. First. Jean Michel Basquiat was an American artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent. He was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 22 1960. Early in his life, it was evident that Jean Michel was gifted. He learned to read and write by the age of four, and by the age of 11. He was fluent in French, Spanish and English, and an avid reader in all three languages. Jean Michel was also a lover of art. He visited museums with his mother in Manhattan, and she encouraged her young artists on by enrolling him in an arts oriented private school. In 1978, Jean Michel and a schoolmate al Diaz, began spray painting graffiti in lower Manhattan under the pseudonym cmoh, which stood for same old. Together they tag poetic and satirical slogans like playing art with daddy's money, or nine to five clone and soon caught the interest of New Yorkers. And later, the art world started to take notice. Soon, Jenny shells started being invited to public access television shows, and even started a noise rock band that played in nightclubs.
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In the early 1980s, same old broke up and Jeremy shell started his solo career as an artist. In June of 1980. He participated in a Time Square, multi artists exhibition and was quickly noticed by critics and curators. He then began making art for famous musicians, and his fame grew quickly. he famously had a friendship and collaborations with Andy Warhol,
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Warhol and Basquiat have made art out of what few others would dare a defacement of each other's painting.
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In each of these enormous Neo pop epics, Warhol begins with his choice corporate logos writ large, and Tabasco, who blogs out the boss's images or scribbles all over.
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Recognizing that the declaration of a renewed faith and painting can use a sacrificial child to enliven and further recognizing that if he were to officiate, some of the Spilled Blood might revive his own standing, Warhol found a medical in basket.
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Here was a young artist who already had mythic status streetsmart with the touch of a natural, a rebel looking for the security of an understanding surrogate father.
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Warhol realized that Baskin as a wild child and an expensive suit could provide a much more unsettling image of the uses of money and leisure than either the older artists lost superstars or the relatively accessible decadence of Studio 54.
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He travelled the world on behalf of his art. He was the youngest artist given an exhibit at kesner gal Chateau in Germany. He had exhibits on the Ivory Coast in Paris and all over the US and even walk the runway in Paris.
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It took only eight short years for Jean Michel to secure his legacy as an art prodigy.
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I think there's a lot of people that have been neglected and are not because it's who made the paintings or what but um
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unemployed people never really portrayed realistically in.
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Not maybe not even not even portrayed in modern art. Enough.
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He died in 1988 at the age of 27, to an overdose.
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At first glance, Jean Michel’s, art could be described as primitive. But the images were complex and sophisticated. He said, I don't think about art when I'm working. I try to think about life. Through his art his worldview is evident, is undeniably black. There's hints of Jackson Pollock, and influences from his Haitian and Puerto Rican ancestry. His most recognizable motif is the bowl crown that appears in most of his famous works. His art often had words written in the painting, echoing his graffiti roots, and the stream of consciousness that went into the creation of the work. I could go on and try to explain his art further, but really, it needs to be seen and felt.
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JOHN Michel said, I don't listen to what art critics say. I don't know anyone who needs a critic to find out what art is. as influential as john Michel was, his art is mostly privately owned. So there are a few public galleries to enjoy his work. As a result, on the rare occasion that his work appears in auction, the price is out of this world, a piece recently sold in 2017 for $110.5 million.
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He is the most financially successful African American painter in history. JOHN Michels legacy has influenced literature, music, film and fashion. In 2007, he was named one of gq 50 most stylish men of the past 50 years, he has starred in and been the subject of films and documentaries. He's been mentioned in many books and poems, and his art has been featured on album covers, and his name pops up in many songs, especially in hip hop. I invite you to look up some of his art
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and see what feeling you get from viewing it.
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