Lesly's Essay

The lives and work of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, both having different lives from one anothers. They both became close friends, but inspired one another in their art. Basquiat had dropped out of school at the age of 17, and lived on the streets and became recognized for his graffiti and scrawled texts on the sides of buildings. In 1982, he was introduced to Andy Warhol, who wrote in his diary that he remembers Basquiat  “He’s the kid 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.” When Basquiat lived on the streets at a young age, many became intrigued about his graffiti in New York and the tag name SAMO. He was also known for his famous use of a crown in his art which is his way of celebrating black people as majestic royalty or deeming them as saints. Years of struggling with his art, Basquiat’s art was finally featured in an art group show. His art work and style was praised for his use of words, symbols, stick figures, and animals. 

However, Andy Warhol suffered as a child with an illness. The disorder kept him home a lot but it spurred his interest in art and photographs. Warhol’s parents bought him his first camera when he was eight years old. His interest in beauty and skin care made its way into his work, with early paintings depicting a nose job, wigs, and pain relief for corns. Warhol was known for his blotted-line ink drawings. This working method combined drawing with basic printmaking and allowed Warhol to repeat an image and to create multiple illustrations along a similar theme. He could also make color or compositional changes quickly in response to client requests. In 1960, Warhol turned his attention to the pop art movement. Everyday life inspired pop artists, and their source material became mass-produced products and commercial artifacts of daily life; commercial products entered into the highly valued fine art space. Among Warhol’s first photographic silkscreen works are his paintings of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, and his Campbell’s Soup Cans.

Although, together Warhol and Basquiat had great artistic creative minds they worked together in numerous projects, some succeeding some not as well. Many questioned their friendship but, they genuinely saw the great in one another. They would become one of the most important relationships in the history of contemporary art. Warhol, known famously as the father of Pop art, and his partner Basquiat having both different upbringings but having the same struggles with their art. The respect and admiration Basquiat and Warhol had for one another inspired two separate scenes of art. In their friendship, each found in the other what they lacked and struggled with, and inspired and helped the other.

   

Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. BBC and Penguin, 

Another. (2019, May 22). Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat's Friendship, In Pictures. Retrieved November 04, 2020, from https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/11730/andy-warhol-on-jean-michel-basquiat-taschen-new-york-1980s-book

Finkelstein, Joanne. The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture. Tauris, 2007.

Shepherd, H. (2017, September 16). Warhol and Basquiat: The Art World's Most Notorious Bromance. Retrieved November 04, 2020, from https://www.sleek-mag.com/article/warhol-basquiat-bromance/