tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post111785988594096557..comments2024-02-08T05:04:18.484-08:00Comments on J'S THEATER: Jean-Michel Basquiat Show @ Brooklyn MuseumJohn Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1123132212247396172005-08-03T22:10:00.000-07:002005-08-03T22:10:00.000-07:00Basquiat's influence is profound of course, and as...Basquiat's influence is profound of course, and as the young writer Nick Stillman wrote in his review of the show in the Brooklyn Rail, many, many, and much of the artists and the contemporary NYC scene owes the speedy acceptance of "young art" and the fetishizing of art that appears "off-hand" and prickly to Basquiat's aesthetic bravery. <BR/><BR/>I was only able to find a few small jpegs of Griffin's paintings but they aren't remotely like that of Basquiats or even particularly innovative. They look like illustrations. They reminded me slightly of the british-american illustrator (and former painter) Russell Christian (The New York Press, The Nation, The New Yorker) adding only the most rudimentary hint at edge that I would guess until a deeper look at Griffin's work doesn't carry nary the intellectual spunk of Christian's line.<BR/><BR/>The mistake many artists make with presumptions about Basquiat's work is simplifying his conceptual richness, and the contrapuntal aesthetic negotiation between urban density, madness and decay, with elegant middle class refinement that he brought that makes the comparison to Dubuffet a very accurate one, among others. Without the politics one could make a case for a relationship with John Chamberlain, and with the politics Larry Rivers and Bruce Conner. Another person to view for comparison with Jean-Michel who was making work concurrent with him in a different city is Tyree Guyton of Detroit.<BR/><BR/>There are other artist to consider who were making work very much in the same vein at the same time as JMB who were a decade to two his senior, a couple being New York's Nancy Olivier and West Coaster Raymond Saunders. Saunders was so annoyed at what he thought were blatant rip-offs of his own work by Basquiat he refused a request by the younger artist to meet with him. Basquiat "appropriated" a lot, however that doesn't compromise his talent or genuis. Picasso himself said once, "Don't borrow- steal."<BR/><BR/>It's also important to point out that though Basquiat's work is important in the American Painting tradition, and certainly an invaluable attribute to the African-American artistic tradition, his biggest financial supporters (or a very substantial part of his success) were European collectors and dealers, one being the German Bruno Bischofberger who was a dealer of Andy Warhol's. Bischofberger had access to the premier work of German "neo-expressionists" like Kiefer, Baselitz, Middendorf, Polke, Luepertz, Richter (to a small degree), to name a few. He made a connection between the young Americans sensibility and that of his German contemporaries. <BR/>This is but one way our JMB functions as a cultural nexus. <BR/><BR/>There is a painter named Neo Rausch,who is roughly the same age as what JMB would be today (mid-40's). Rausch like JMB, is in some sense "post-modern" and <BR/>"classical", jarring and refined. Rausch seemingly has less to talk about in his paintings so the work however strong is powerful for some other reason than any political stance, or real exigency to paint other than perhaps a love of painting or perhaps even just simply a habit of painting. That said, this observation doesn't mean to take anything away from him. Rausch is a very good painter. If one compares the two in the given context of "neo-expressionism" as peers or just contemporaries we see the weight with which JMB handles his position in society as "black" artists, versus the airiness of an equally gifted painter who is "white" and free of the speculative lense under which JMB was thought to have to prove himself. Another gifted artist and a relatively tepid, pedestrian thinker who uses paint "light" like that, however in a very different way, is John Currin. <BR/><BR/>My personal belief, is one of the purest ways to appreciate JMB's work is from the stand point of "artist" alone, and to consider what that means in a philosophical sense first. What comes after that makes him seem more and more important by the minute.<BR/><BR/>- CSAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1120068480549408022005-06-29T11:08:00.000-07:002005-06-29T11:08:00.000-07:00I'll check Griffin's work out. I do think Basquia...I'll check Griffin's work out. I do think Basquiat evolved towards the end of his life, but it was an severely foreshortened change, to be sure.John Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1119967767522412592005-06-28T07:09:00.000-07:002005-06-28T07:09:00.000-07:00Basquiat was Great he had the line. Drugs and copy...Basquiat was Great he had the line. Drugs and copying out of books while he was tweking. His power is that he didnt care or try to control just let it out. You say he evaloved but not very much one painting is done the same each time drugs random copying from book then line work over the top. This new artist Gregg Griffin at the Blah Blah Gallery is the next new artist makeing powerful art you have to see for yourself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com