Jennifer Short essay

    Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat are two inspirational and important artists in the world of art and media. Both artists have struggled through their childhood and their life but have successfully grown into wonderful artists that as of today people remember them. The artist Andy Warhol came from an immigrant family but as a child he suffered from a disease known as Sydenham chorea which is a neurological disorder that made Warhol do involuntary movements. As the years went by Warhol’s disease caused a discoloration on his skin that led him to believe he had an imperfect face which he decided to hide with the use of wigs, clothing and cosmetics and plastic surgery on his nose. As equally when Warhol was becoming an artist he also became an entrepreneur. He stated “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” (The Warhol Museum) Warhol was a workaholic but what pushed him to accomplish this idea of money is art? Warhol's was determined to be rich with his ideas and art. The idea of being an immigrant and the issue he had to face with his family was not the idealistic future Warhol planned for himself. Even in his paintings like Marilyn Monroe or the Campbell soup. He always targeted those celebrities and famous branding because it was his inspiration to become rich like them. Warhol’s artwork was very unique and strange to the audience’s eyes because of different demonstrations he drew of the celebrities. He even drew one of himself. But why? It can be the mere background is the way he sees himself. Warhol disguised himself with wigs, color and even went through plastic surgery to hide his imperfection. I believe he made several different copies that each one of his pictures exemplifies differently. Warhol is a man with many life to death accidents which really helped him understand the significance of time, color, perspective and how every object and human has it.  colors because he wants to show how the real art/ beauty is the way the audience views it.   “If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it.”(the Warhol Museum) Andy Warhol accepted who he was and what made him an artist. The painting and drawing he did exemplify the unique and different personality he had and always had in the community. Andy Warhol was an artist who accepted his problems and continued on with his fame on top of the fact he was gay and different from the rest. The art is him and he is the art and there is no objection to changing Warhol’s mind because his artwork and paintings are the reason why he is Andy Warhol. 

Jean-Michel Basquiat was another artist that brought his reality into art form. “Each image looks directly out to the reader. The back-ground is plain and undistracting, there is no trick lighting. They are a true study of the straightforward and uncomplicated. Yet there is a sense of menace and anxiety as if this very ordinariness was in jeopardy.” (Berger 130) Basquait’s artwork exemplified a true and plain art. He showed his emotions and feelings into his artwork. Basquiat had a difficult time as a African American and left his home when he was only 17 to survive on his own in New York City. He wanted to be free and not constrained in the comfortable zone. Why is that? Jean-Michel Basquiat was not someone who wanted to be stuck at home but wanted to be like the street artist.  He went out on the street to gain the ideas to become like the other street artists like Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, and also teamed up with  Al Diaz to join in spray painting buildings. Basquait in his paintings he wanted to show and identify himself as a black man who has come to demonstrates his work. He focused more on that aspect than his work. In his painting you can see the message and the persistency he had to demonstrate his roots and culture. Unfortunately, Basquiat received lots of critique toward his artwork that there were mere scribbles on a piece of paper. His artwork wasn;t children work but it was a form of Neo-expressionism dealing with harsh brushwork and vivid colors to express the artist rough, raw and depressing moments for Basquiat. In Finkelstein it states, “Consciousness, memory, sentiment and human will were thus the robust ingredients that always brought together the fate of society with that of singular individuals.” (Finkelstein, 138) This demonstrates how the true ingredients Basquait put into his art: real and strong emotions that everyone may encounter or feel. Compared to Warhol, Basquiat couldn’t handle the fame nor the critique toward his artwork that he started overdosing with drugs that led to an early death. Both artists suffer through their childhood but it shaped their present and their future. 

Works Cited 

“Andy Warhol's Life.” The Andy Warhol Museum, www.warhol.org/andy-warhols-life/. 

Finkelstein, Joanne. The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture. I. B.     

     Tauris, 2007.

“Jean-Michel Basquiat.” Artnet, www.artnet.com/artists/jean-michel-basquiat/.