Basquiat: Art and Objecthood

Apr 15

Doors, cabinets, a refrigerator, football helmets, cloth, bottle caps, human hair…HUMAN HAIR…and other street-found shit became the stuff of high art when rendered by the god-like hands and maniacal genius of the late Jean-Michel Basquiat.

That’s the point of a new exhibit, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Art and Objecthood, on view through June 11 at Nahmad Contemporary, 980 Madison Avenue. That point is made over and over through these works of creation, adaption and desperation.

Basquiat developed his artistic repertoire within the vibrant East Village art scene of the early 1980s, during the emergence of hip-hop’s cut-and-paste aesthetic. Some of the items appear familiar: a football helmet and refrigerator appear to be those featured in a photograph taken by Alexis Adler in the 6th floor, E. 12th St apartment she shared with the pre-fame Basquiat in 1979-1980.

Untitled (Wood on Wood), 1985, oil and oilstick on wood.

In a 1985 interview by Becky Johnston and Tamra Davis in California, Basquiat explained: “The first paintings I made were on windows I found on the street. And I used the window shape as a frame, and I just put the painting on the glass part and on doors I found on the street.”

Two doors: Pork, 1981, oil and oilstick on glass and wood door and Untitled (The Door), 1984, acrylic, oil and Xerox collage on wood door.

This exhibit, which includes some two dozen works, demonstrates the extent to which Basquiat’s sculptural practice, particularly his use of objects, reveal his intense dedication to the struggle against social inequality, as well as his profound engagement with the politics of race in the United States.

Multiflavor, 1982, acrylic and oilstick on canvas mounted on tied wood supports.

It should be no surprise that the young Basquiat found use for the detritus of the forgotten and broken streets of the East Village as the 1980s dawned. As prolific an artist as ever picked up a paint brush, Basquiat at his busiest created hundreds of works per year initially on street and alley walls, then on found items, then, more and more as his genius was recognized, on canvas.

Untitled (Easel), 1983, acrylic, oil, chalk, and oilstick on wood easel.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Art and Objecthood is curated by Basquait scholar Dieter Buchhart. It borrows its title from an influential essay written in 1967 by renowned modern art historian Michael Fried and ushers audiences back to the 20th century when artists forged new definitions of art by embracing nontraditional media on a wide scale.

Untitled (Football Helmet), 1981-84, acrylic and human hair on football helmet.

The exhibition was developed with the support of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat and made possible by generous loans from several American and European institutions and worldwide private collections. It comes as a second, larger show, Jean-Michel Basquiat King Pleasure is running at Starrett-Lehigh Building, 601 W. 26th St. in Chelsea. B Scene Zine will be reviewing that show shortly.