…By compartmentalising the exhibition into thematic sections, the show’s narrative thrust identifies Basquiat’s processes of production, appropriation and visual interpretation. Paintings such as Jack Johnson (1982), Hollywood Africans (1983) and the totemic Tuxedo (1983) are testament to this, highlighting the artist’s ability for visual and cultural acuity. An array of collaborations, creative associations and influences from Andy Warhol and Fab 5 Freddy to Keith Haring and Charlie Parker further illustrate the wide-ranging scope of Basquiat’s creativity. Coupled with a portrait of a near bankrupted New York City, this seemingly compelling and revelatory narrative masks as much as it reveals. Is it really possible to evaluate Basquiat’s practice and legacy without reference to the coterie of dealers and collectors who played such an influential role in propelling him and his art to the status of immortalised commodity?
In Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art from 1998, Phoebe Hoban notes that ‘Basquiat’s life spanned an [sic] historic shift in the art world, from Pop to Neo-Expressionism, from hip to hype’. Hoban’s observation alludes to an altogether more troubled narrative, laced with pecuniary ambition, self-interest and the commodification of art and artist. Predictably enough, Basquiat: Boom for Real renders the transformative role played by 1980s corporate America and the rise of the rapacious art dealer as peripheral to the narrative of a creative and enigmatic black genius. Entering the exhibition, we are confronted by an enormous black-and-white video projection of Basquiat dancing in his studio from 1985. Such an incidental, almost banal piece of archival footage sets the tone for the show. Basquiat is, quite literally, projected as a larger-than-life persona, an object of curiosity…
More +Excerpt from Basquiat Boom for Real, Barbican Art Gallery,
London 21 September 2017– 28 January 2018
Art Review, December 2017