For your next post, first reflect on the film. What image of the artist did it present and how? Are there any aspects of the "Schematic Structure" that you see playing out?

While watching the film, I noted back to the first exercise we did in class, where we wrote down common traits that characterize artists. Stereotypes like deviant, drug addicted, stubborn, unique, and impulsive also characterize Basquiat’s portrayal in the film. The film really enabled us as the viewer to see what his life was like and see how he thought as an artist in New York in the 80’s. The director of the film Julian Schnabel, who was also his friend, also contributed to the quality in which we got to know Basquiat. Basquiat’s eccentric personality and drug-induced lifestyle pretty much describes the lives of most artists during that time. An aspect of the Schematic Structure in the film is most characterized by the opening and closing scenes. We do not actually get a thorough understanding of his upbringing/ family but we are able to see where his passion for art may have came from. The film begins with Basquiat as a young boy with his mother viewing Picasso’s Guernica. In this scene, his mother begins crying while observing the painting, and glances at her son Jean-Michel and begins smiling because he has a glowing crown on his head. This scene shows his love for art at a young age and foreshadows his promise to the world that one day he will be a the next “kind of art” like Picasso, and will have his own masterpieces viewed by people everywhere. The end of the film concludes with a boy, who looks similar to Basquiat as a young boy trapped in a tower, forever, banging his crown on the bars and making beautiful music for all of his village to hear. I believe that this final scene describes Basquiat’s life appropriately. He was a young man, who was trapped, but was still able to create beautiful art for the world.

Next, referring to the Jamison reading, do you think that the film links drug use and mental illness with artistic creativity? Don't say what you think, describe what the film "thinks." Refer to the suggestions for film viewing and analysis in Chapter 2 of "Writing about Film."

This film definitely correlates the use of drugs provoking creativity for an artist. The film portrays Basquiat and his friends as drug addicts, and in most scenes show him making his pieces while under the influence of drugs. The film also shows bursts of hallucinations and dreams, in many scenes, a surfer is shown in the sky. This relates to his dream of going to Hawaii, I believe that this decision to include his hallucination was an escape from his chaotic world of drug, women, and art. In many instances he tells his friends Benny and Andy Warhol. Much of his inspiration comes from drug episodes and hallucinations. The film also hints at the notion that his creativity relates with manic depression. His mother is not formally diagnosed with depression in the film, but it is revealed that she lives in a mental institution; In one example, he calls a suicide hotline stating that the noise in the background is his mother, meaning that the noise in his is head is his mother. Therefore we can assume that this fact weighed heavily on Basquiat, and may have had some influence on his work. His rise to success was also attributed to his drug use, his career started when he met his first agent and promoter while buying drugs in an apartment. Unfortunately, the drugs that he uses as instruments of creativity ultimately prove to be his downfall. He died at a young age of 27, from a heroin overdose.