SMOOTH Magazine
Basquiat, Edited by Mark Mayer (Merrell)
For those who don’t know, Jean-Michel Basquiat was one of the superstars of the intensely vibrant New York City art scene of the 1980’s. Drawing his inspiration from graffiti, cartoons, street imagery, mythology, and religious symbolism, Basquiat was also influenced by sources as divergent as Pablo Picasso and the emerging hip-hop culture. His work seemed chaotic yet was actually tightly controlled, often exploring issues of race and identity. A teenage runaway and high school dropout, he died at the age of 27, his fantastic but all-too-brief career regretfully lasting only eight years. If you dig contemporary art, Basquiat is well worth the hefty price tag. It includes an abundance …
