The Bad Art Cafe

Basquiat (1996)

"In 1981, a nineteen old unknown graffiti writer took the New York art world by storm. The rest is Art History"

the film directed by Julian Schnabel
the working script by Julian Schnabel

script of Basquiat

Into: this film script is a shorten version of much more complicated story about the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988). The film itself is a complicated story, so I took the highlights & compared them to the facts from the biography of JMB (Jean-Michel Basquiat: a Quick Killing in Art by Phoebe Hoban (1998) in italics. At the very end I wrote up some of the differances in the film & the script published on the web.

Note: Schnabel was another artist in JMB's life so he had to fabricate a character - Milo - to fill out the story.

A Review of Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art by Phoebe Hoban

"Painter Jean-Michel Basquiat was the Jimi Hendrix of the art world" so says the back cover of the Quick Killing in Art. They both died at 27. There are numerous comparisons - Hendrix even wrote a kind of epitaph for Jean in "Highway Chile": "I couldn't say what went through his mind/ Anyway, he left the world behind/ But everybody knows the same old story/ In love and war you can't lose
glory."

let alone paint great

from a working manuscript of a book review of a Quick Killing in Art by Phoebe Hogan: A quick killing in art is the first place to start if you want to know about the person who is jean-michel basquiat & what his life was like as new york artist, (in great social detail). but inspite of it's last chapter, chanel-surfing in paint, (a chapter that successfully tries to sum up his painting ouvre.) this is not the place to find out about his accomplishments in avant-garde american art. for that you need to look at the exhibition catalog from 1992 from the whitney museum of american art by richard marshall, & it's essays by rene ricard, et al. after reading the entire quick killing in art, (this book is quick killing in prose), you might think jmb was an accident in the art world waiting to happen: how could anyone that drugged out paint, let alone paint great

Riding with Death Jean-Michel Basquiat, 12/22/1960 – 8/12/1988

The art critics were always brutal, saying he repeated himself over and over again, but Jean-Michel Basquiat managed to paint up until the last days of his life.

My Favorite Picture of Jean-Michel Basquiat

It’s in the Diaries of Andy Warhol, somewhere in the middle picture section, with all the other celebrities. But if you read the ENTIRE DIARY, you will find Jean-Michel as being the star of later part of the diaries. Some stuff is really boring, but Jean’s entries are never.

It’s a picture of Jean-Michel walking into Mary Bonne’s art gallery with satchel of paintings on his back wrapped up in a large piece of plebian unbleached muslin. Jean is turning around and looking at the camera (it’s Andy’s picture), partially annoyed, partially flattered, and always, always self-possessed. He has on a rumbled linen suit, and a hat over his dreadlocks. Mary Boone’s gallery name appears on the picture. As does his name: Jean-Michel Basquiat in block letters. He looks youthful and wise and old all at the same time. And, what paintings is he carrying? Good question.

The little romance with Mary Boone’s art gallery didn’t last for long. And I’ve never seen this picture anywhere else.

So, how did Jean-Michel & Andy meet?

From: the Diaries of Andy Warhol, edited by Pat Hackett

Monday, October 4, 1982

Down to meet Bruno Bischofberger (cab $7.50). He brought Jean Michel Basquiat with him. He’s the one who used the name “Samo” when he used to sit on the sidewalk in Greenwich Village and paint T-shirts, and I’d give him $10.00 here and there and send him up to Serendipity to try to sell the T-shirts there. He was just one of those kids who drove me crazy. He’s black but some people say he Puerto Rican so I don’t know. And then Bruno discovered him and now he’s on Easy Street. He’s got a great loft on Christie Street. He was a middle-class Brooklyn kid – I mean he went to college and things – and he was trying to like that painting in the Greenwich Village.

Absolute Blue Jean

Countdown to Art Chicago 2004: it will be here at Navy Pier May 7 – 10, 2004.

Here are more notes from Art Chicago 2001: on looking for a Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Mr. Greedy

Mr. Greedy (acrylic & oil paintstick on canvas, 1986) by Jean-Michel Basquiat is almost 4' X 3'. It is one of simplest background paintings with only monochromatic blue paint, and a whitewash effect over the left hand upper corner.

Mr. Greedy has a long nose that sticks out like a lead pipe, but it's sectioned off like an elephant's nose, and the nasal opening is in sucking motion. He has a gold cartoon crown, not on his head, but floating above it, outlined in red, with GREED c. imprinted in it to assure the viewer he's a trademark cartoon guy. Mr. Greedy's blue, mixed up with some white so he stands out from the blue background. He's missing an entire leg and arm; only a short line to indicate they're there. But his one arm is outstretched with a brown painted hand, and instead of fingers, Mr. Greedy has a set of pinchers waiting to pinch something (not in the picture).

Research

Re-reading Mapplethorpe’s bio (by Patricia Morrisroe) to get a good idea on how I want to tackle my research. It’s very informative to have read Jean-Michel Basquiat’s bio (by Phoebe Hoban ) besides his. Wrote down all the important “verbal framework” ( or “verbal abuse” depending on the art critic) that I might find in the periodicals at the many libraries I need to visit in order to get a hold on the people I’m researching the “verbal framework” of.

RM vs. JMB as artists – both inspired by Andy Warhol – totally different artists – both from dysfunctional families, both tortured souls. RM shows this as an under current of violence to his classical approach to capturing his subject matter. And JMB shows this in his cartoon approach, his wild drawings, his so-called disconnentedness, wild colors, huge canvases.

JBM’s first art exhibit featured the work of RM’s too.

The Basquiat Flick, again

Okay, back to the flick about Jean- Michel Basquiat, American painter.

Part of this movie was complete fiction; a complete fabrication, yet it had it’s moments of truth, they were just too few and far between. It was a movie makers movie. A movie that had great heightened moments, but this movie is why films about New York art world do not make sense to regular people.