RE: Basquiat

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?

I thought that the portrayal of Basquiat’s life was quite fascinating especially since the director of the movie was an artist friend of Basquiat’s. I feel like as the audience, we gained insights into Basquiat’s life that no biography could have told us because the director personally knew Basquiat and what he dealt with/felt on a daily basis.
From how society portrays the “stereotypical artist” Basquiat’s life seemed very similar to most New York artists of this time, such as Pollock. He was very eclectic, went through the motions of ‘finding’ himself through his artwork, used drugs as a way to live with himself and create artwork, couldn’t be faithful to the woman he loved, and seemed to have deep rooted emotional/psychological problems.
As for Schematic Structure, the movie of Basquiat was almost completely intertwined. In the beginning of the movie, we see that Basquiat is going to be a great artist because of the scene where he as a little boy is wearing a crown. To me, this foreshadows that Basquiat is going to be the next ‘king’ of art, much like Picasso was in his days as an artist (hence the Picasso painting). In his youth, Basquiat shows virtuosity in both graffiti art as well as canvas art/found objects art. He sells small drawings to stay above ground and this is basically how he gets on the path of becoming an internationally known artist. Basquiat is then ‘discovered’ by the art critic and his career takes off, surpassing other artists of the time and selling paintings for thousands of dollars. In his older age, such as when he is trying to get his mother out of the mental institution and when he changes he hairstyle, there seems to be some religious imagery, which may link to the artists spirituality. They do not show Basquiat’s death, but when Warhol dies the director shows how it affects everyone around him. The fate of the body is not included in the movie and neither is fate of works, but from previous knowledge and research Basquiat is still considered a major influence in the modern art 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."

In my opinion, just because society has directly correlated artists’ creativity with drug abuse and mental illness there will already be a preconceived notion that Basquiat’s life is the same. For me, as I watched the movie I kept looking for those little thinks that would prove society’s position on artists, drugs, creativity and mental illness. It seemed like the more drugs Basquiat took and the crazier he was perceived throughout the movie the more works he sold, the more famous he got, and his artwork sold for more money. Basquiat was basically high all of the time. I found it interesting that when he was high he envisioned a tower of painted towers, and when he was interviewing at a gallery the painted tires were in the background. His artwork and creativity seemed to stem from his hallucinations. Who is to truly know whether Basquiat had mental problems or not, the movie does seem to leave the decision up to the viewer, but most would probably say that the movie conceived him as mentally ill because the connotation of artists being crazy already exists.