Nadia's Essay

    Art functions as an extension of the artist who made it, serving as a public identity that reflects the artist’s personal influences as a result of their lived experiences. This is the case for two of the most famous American artists of the twentieth century, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Their upbringings and personal lives directly influenced their work over the course of their artistic careers, from the techniques used in developing said work to the subjects and themes of their works, creating individualistic styles that enabled the invention of their public selves. 

    Andy Warhol grew up as the youngest child of working class immigrants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a child he was often bed-ridden as a result of a neurological disorder. During those times when he was confined to his bed, he would find solace in drawing, listening to the radio, and collecting photographs of movie stars, pastimes that began his obsession with popular culture and the famous, themes that would later appear in some of his most famous works, like Marilyn Diptych and Gold Marilyn Monroe. These works in particular highlight Warhol’s preoccupation with the famous, as both symbolize the level of celebrity worship achieved by Monroe and her status as an icon at the time of her death. Marilyn Diptych is reminiscent of religious triptychs that were utilized throughout the Middle Ages and beyond as the standard format for altar paintings, while Gold Marilyn Monroe depicts the star’s face in a void of gold, similar to religious iconography, and highlighting her as a worshipped figure. Warhol employed the use of silk screening to create these works, a commercial technique that facilitates reproduction and makes the star appear artificial. This technique is accompanied by distinct, bright colors in each reproduction of her face, serving to make Marilyn appear less and less human, further cementing her position as a figure curated by Hollywood to appeal to and be idolized by the masses.

    Jean-Michel Basquiat, similarly to Warhol, had his artwork and techniques influenced by his own life experiences. He’s a Haitian-Puerto Rican artist who grew up in Manhattan. After getting into an accident as a child, his mother gifted him a copy of Grey’s Anatomy, a book that influenced his art style to incorporate a focus on anatomical features, especially teeth, sinew, skulls, etc., in his figures. He began as a graffiti artist in Manhattan under the pseudonym SAMO, a style that would persist as he later entered into the professional art world. He was able to elevate street art into the world of the elite as he became a solo artist, utilizing graffiti style alongside his cartoon-inspired drawings in his work. Basquiat’s work focused on the lives of the marginalized, influenced by his own identity as an Afro-Latino man who grew up in the streets of the city. The subjects of his works like Hollywood Africans, Irony of the Negro Policeman, and Obnoxious Liberals, are black men, depicting how they are systematically oppressed and stereotyped in society. As he stated in State of the Art, “Black people are never really portrayed realistically in - not - or - not even - I mean, not even portrayed in modern art enough,” showcasing how he sought to bring the black experience to the forefront of the art world, much like Mickalene Thomas does with her work, seeking to correct the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of Black Americans by “quite literally raising their visibility and inserting their presence into the conversation” (Blair, Dunne). 

Both Basquiat and Warhol invented their own public identities through their art as an extension of their personal identities. Their art, their public display of their identities was the direct result of their influences growing up. They entered the public domain “for the pursuit of ambition and avarice, reputation and glory. Living in public requires the individual to be anxious about the opinions of others, hence one is always having to act” (Finkelstein 141). Warhol especially loved fame and the famous, utilizing notable figures like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Jackie Kennedy in his work. He wanted to maintain his own fame and reputation, being of those individuals who “were required to adopt highly stylized public personae when they regularly confronted virtual strangers whose approval and esteem they sought” (Finkelstein 130). He often wore wigs in public and was known as a very enigmatic person. Basquiat, while also preoccupied with his fame, had his work directly influenced by what he saw and experienced growing up as a black man in the United States. As “the idea of personal identity becomes synonymous with the art of thinking about oneself in the social world,” Basquiat’s work highlighted the positions of the marginalized communities he belonged to (Finkelstein 136). Both artists used their personal identities to invent public personas based on their artistic output, creating works that represented them and their influences.

    

Marilyn Diptych, Andy Warhol

Gold Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol

Hollywood Africans, Jean-Michel Basquiat

Irony of the Negro Policeman, Jean-Michel Basquiat

Obnoxious Liberals, Jean-Michel Basquiat

Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. British Broadcasting Corp., 2012. 

Blair, Elizabeth. “Jean-Michel Basquiat Painting Sells For Record $110.5 Million.” NPR, NPR, 19 May 2017, www.npr.org/2017/05/19/529175793/jean-michel-basquiat-painting-sells-for-record-110-5-million.

Dunne, Carey. “The Photographed, Collaged, and Painted Muses of Mickalene Thomas.” Hyperallergic, 5 Mar. 2016, hyperallergic.com/278045/the-photographed-collaged-and-painted-muses-of-mickalene-thomas/.

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