Synopses & Reviews
Before his death at the age of twenty-seven, Jean-Michel Basquiat completed nearly 2,000 works. These unique compositionsand#151;collages of text and gestural painting across a variety of mediaand#151;quickly made Basquiat one of the most important and widely known artists of the 1980s. Reading Basquiat provides a new approach to understanding the range and impact of this artistand#8217;s practice, as well as its complex relationship to several key artistic and ideological debates of the late twentieth century, including the instability of identity, the role of appropriation, and the boundaries of expressionism. Jordana Moore Saggese argues that Basquiat, once known as and#147;the black Picasso,and#8221; probes not only the boundaries of blackness but also the boundaries of American art. Weaving together the artistand#8217;s interests in painting, writing, and music, this groundbreaking book expands the parameters of aesthetic discourse to consider the parallels Basquiat found among these disciplines in his exploration of the production of meaning. Most important, Reading Basquiat traces the ways in which Basquiat constructed large parts of his identityand#151;as a black man, as a musician, as a painter, and as a writerand#151;via the manipulation of texts in his own library.
Synopsis
"A brilliant book and a great read. At long last, a deeply researched text on Basquiat's project."
and#151;Jonathan Fineberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"Challenging prevailing assumptions about the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Saggese argues that Basquiatand#8217;s practice was as much conceptual as expressive. Reading Basquiat turns the focus from the artistand#8217;s lifestyle to his work and the ways in which his approach to appropriation and improvisation addressed the artistic discourse of the 1980s. With this book, Saggese changes the conversation about Basquiat and African Americansand#8217; participation in contemporary art."
and#151;John P. Bowles, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
About the Author
Jordana Moore Saggese is Assistant Professor, Visual Studies Program, at California College of the Arts, San Francisco, where she teaches courses in modern and contemporary art history and in African-American and African diaspora art history.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Reading Jean-Michel Basquiat
1. and#147;The Black Picassoand#8221;: Jean-Michel Basquiat and Questions of Race
2. Creativity Found and Made
3. The Language of Expressionism
Notes
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index