Jimi Hendrix of the Art World - Jean Michel Basquiat. Requiem For a Dream.

Another Post. Another Expressionist. Another Inspiration.

There is something about Jean Michel Basquiat that makes a huge difference. In his character, in the depth of his youth, in that weird innocence of a heavy drug addict and the quintessence of his beautiful and extraordinary mind.

Everything happened too fast for Basquiat. First came his now iconographic graffiti in NYC under the pseudonym SAMO (for "same old shit") in the late 70s, the emergence of a new art movement Neo Expressionism that he adopted, producing canvases painted in a primitive style, which brought him critical acclaim and unquestionable fame, friendship that he developed with Andy Warhol in the mid 80s, group shows and exhibitions in the best museums around the world, big collectors and typhoon of Media and TV, artistic triumph and drugs...and then more drugs, depression and fatal death at the age of 27, brutal ending caused by heroine and cocaine overdose in the form of so ironically called speedball.

As for me, Basquiat's work utterly reflects the artist's inner and outer experiences, and the way he perceived the realms of the worlds he lived in. While exploring his canvases, I enjoy detecting the motives of Miro, Duffy, de Kooning and Pollock, or comparing them to medical books, he drew inspiration from. When you look at his work you disclose life that made sense for the artist, all the books he read and the music he cherished, you hear the bebop jazz of the 1940s, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, see the streets of Brooklyn, where he was born, feel his Haitian and Afro-Puerco-Rican roots through those constant Afrocentric themes. He approached provocatively positioned subject matters, social commentary and text that addressed issues of racism and class struggle, criticizing power structures and colonialism.

"He was one of the few people I was truly envious of', said Madonna in her interview for the Guardian in 1996, 'But he didn't know how good he was and he was plagued with insecurities. When I heard that Jean- Michel had died I was not surprised. He was too fragile for this world."

Jean Michel Basquiat, created mysterious canvases that carry an indestructible energy, an enigmatical spirit of a legendary figure, who lived and died as a rock star, there was something sad about him, a sad dreamer with an odd appeal and a very fine soul.

FP

David Bowie, Dennis Hopper, Jeffrey Wright, Garry Oldman in the Julian Schnabel's movie Basquiat, where David Bowie played Andy Warhol. Basquiat and Bowie knew each other, while working together in 1983.