Basquiat & Warhol (Short Essay #1) by Raven D.

  Both contemporary artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat have made an influential impact on the modern art scene with their work. Basquiat and Warhol even had the chance to collaborate together during their careers in the 1980s. They both have similar yet different approaches in artistic style and overall creating art. According to Joanne Finklestein in The Art Of Self Invention, she states “Contemporary culture is a form of social instruction that can evolve beyond its original inception.” (Finklestein, 12) These documentaries provided more insight into how they viewed the world through art and how others they knew viewed them. 

  Andy Warhol was a huge innovator of the Pop Art movement. His biggest inspiration was pop culture. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, impoverished living with his two brothers and parents who were Slovakia immigrants. At a young age, he was diagnosed with the neurotic disease of Sydenham chorea. To cope with his struggle he turned to art and the glamorous world of Old-Hollywood as an outlet, cutting out pictures of movie stars from magazines. According to Joanne Finklestein’s The Art of Self Invention, it states that “The organic relationship between popular culture and personal values is impossible to link causally yet equally it is impossible to deny. The prevailing features of the moment do not mechanically influence us in a one-way coercive direction but neither do they leave us untouched. In this way, popular culture is like a rapid and continual series of switching points where mass-mediated images and messages become absorbed into everyday habits and then, at other times, are displaced and sidelined.” (Finklestein, 16) In the documentary, it’s mentioned how he always dreamed of going to Hollywood. Later on, during his career as a commercial artist in the late 1950s, his admiration for pop culture was still evident. He made his work colorful, vibrant, modern and commercial in homage to culture; introducing Pop Art to the art world. He’d use art mediums such as watercolor paint and ink. While his techniques were traditional, he’d produce his art mechanically so he reproduced as much as he could in his line of commerce art. 

   According to John Berger in Ways Of Seeing, he states that “Consequently a reproduction, as well as making its own references to the image of its original, becomes itself the reference point for other images. The meaning of an image is changed according to what one sees immediately beside it or what comes immediately after it. Such authority as it retains is distributed over the whole context in which it appears”. (Berger, 29) The style of his work provided new meanings of figures praised in the media. Some of Warhol’s famous works were Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962), Marilyn Monroe (1962), and Coca-Cola (1962). He enjoyed fame just as much as he adored those he would pay tribute to in his work. Despite this he still had a public and private persona of himself, even endured battles such a drug addiction and discrimination for being gay. Andy Warhol’s work left a lasting impression of his bold and eccentric nature as a person and an artist.


   Jean Michel-Basquiat was an artist that was a huge innovator of contemporary art. His biggest inspiration was human anatomy. He was born and raised impoverished in Brooklyn, New York by his mother who was Puerto Rican, and his father who was a Haitian immigrant. During his early childhood, he expressed a talent and interest in art. After experiencing a car accident as a child and was injured, he started studying Grey’s Anatomy. He never attended art school but would read a lot of books and visit art museums. Other artistic influences he immersed himself in were Jazz and Classical music along with Donna Summers. At the early start of his art career in the 70s, he left home and did graffiti art and paintings that would invoke ideas about personal values and beliefs. He’d tag his work as ‘SAMO’ which meant the idea of belief. After his work was recognized in the SoHo, New York scene, he would choose to separate art from the artist. He was being referred to as SAMO didn’t want to be since it wasn’t him just the theme of his art. He wanted to be known as Jean Michel Basquiat the artist.

   Basquiat’s art would consist of colorful linework of figures and motifs. The art mediums he would use are painting, drawing, and collage. His art style and methods were intricate yet abstract, making the viewer want to dissect the meaning of any of his pieces. Some of his famous pieces are Scull (1981), Crown (1983), Trumpet (1984), and Dustheads (1982). Other influences that he would incorporate in his art were politics and African history, since he was biracial and hardly seen it showcased in art. In John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, it states that “When we ‘see’ a landscape, we situate ourselves in it. If we ‘saw’ the art of the past, we would situate ourselves in history. We are prevented from seeing it, we are being deprived of in the history which belongs to us” (Berger, 11). He felt that African history was never portrayed realistically and regally in modern art, so he contributed to changing that. Also in doing this, he didn’t want to be known solely as a ‘Black artist’ believing that “Any artist known for being a part of a social group, has their opportunities (in a box)” and how “A great artist is more than a black artist”. This would also cause traction of racism, which he feared. He was very humble when it came to fame, not caring too much about money, and just wanted to create. Jean Michel Basquiat’s work didn’t shape him as a person but defined him as an artist that was introverted, passionate, and brilliant.

Works Cited:

• Finkelstein, Joanne. The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture. I.B. Tauris, 2007.
• Berger, John, et al. Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger. British Broadcasting Corporation, 1990.