Since the wife is out of town, I've had a lot more time to while away. Add to the fact that its the holiday week and work has been slack, so I've been catching up on a lot of movies on my Netflix Instant queue.
The first was an eponymously titled movie based on the life of Jean Michel Basquiat, the famous neo-expressionist and primitivist painter from New York. Honestly, this was my first introduction to Basquiat and I was very intrigued by his story and biography. From my later reading about him, I gathered that the movie stayed fairly loyal to his life events, although there were a few cinematic liberties taken. Basquiat started off as a small-time graffiti artist. His graffiti isn't the Banksy or Shepherd Fairey style print art, but rather more primitive and introspective. He used a lot of words in his work to express his emotions with figures drawn around, often without a pattern. I'll admit, his art is a little tough to digest specially if one isn't familiar with expressionist styles. It is very emotional and sometimes they are just child-like scribblings. There is a very meta dialogue in the movie which references that: when a white interviewer, played by Christopher Walker, asks him, a bit mockingly, what his paintings meant, Basquiat remarks to the effect of, 'Do you ask the same question to musicians?'. Touche!
Personally, that is the how I appreciate art. Art has to be experienced like music. You sit in front of a beautiful modern art installation and let the color, the shape, the image and the presence of it sink into you. Let the form and style inspire you, enthrall you like a great sonata and bingo, you've learnt to appreciate art. Art by its very nature is subjective; its one man's expression in a language he invented and knows best. Everyone else is like a code-breaker trying to understand it without the key. Here are some samples of his work:
Basquiat's story and his interaction with his contemporaries like Andy Warhol, Rene Ricard and Julian Schnabel (who is also the director of this movie) marked the era when modern art and expressionism was exploding and there was a lot of hype created by the artists themselves and also their dealers and gallerists; its tough to tell if the hype was deserved or not. One could say the same about Basquiat's life too. His fame, his rise, art and existence are all together one big dizzy and dreamy tale punctuated with drugs and sex.
The movie has a host of real life characters including Andy Warhol, Rene Ricard and many others from the eighties New York art scene. David Bowie plays are very affected version of Warhol, but manages to keep it from getting farcical. There a bunch of cameos by big stars like William Dafoe, Benicio Del Toro, Gary Oldman and they keep the movie chugging along, because it does drag a bit in between. Basquiat is played by Jeffrey Wright and I thought he anchored the film with his innocence. It worked really well and you end up at least sympathizing with his character if not empathize.
Personally, that is the how I appreciate art. Art has to be experienced like music. You sit in front of a beautiful modern art installation and let the color, the shape, the image and the presence of it sink into you. Let the form and style inspire you, enthrall you like a great sonata and bingo, you've learnt to appreciate art. Art by its very nature is subjective; its one man's expression in a language he invented and knows best. Everyone else is like a code-breaker trying to understand it without the key. Here are some samples of his work:
Basquiat's story and his interaction with his contemporaries like Andy Warhol, Rene Ricard and Julian Schnabel (who is also the director of this movie) marked the era when modern art and expressionism was exploding and there was a lot of hype created by the artists themselves and also their dealers and gallerists; its tough to tell if the hype was deserved or not. One could say the same about Basquiat's life too. His fame, his rise, art and existence are all together one big dizzy and dreamy tale punctuated with drugs and sex.
The movie has a host of real life characters including Andy Warhol, Rene Ricard and many others from the eighties New York art scene. David Bowie plays are very affected version of Warhol, but manages to keep it from getting farcical. There a bunch of cameos by big stars like William Dafoe, Benicio Del Toro, Gary Oldman and they keep the movie chugging along, because it does drag a bit in between. Basquiat is played by Jeffrey Wright and I thought he anchored the film with his innocence. It worked really well and you end up at least sympathizing with his character if not empathize.