Barbican Art Gallery, LondonThis dazzling retrospective reveals the savage sweep of Jean-Michel Basquiat, an artist whose blood-spattered mouths and grinning human skulls captured the tragic arc of American historyIf the brilliantly promising artist whose paintings delight and dazzle the eye and mind in this retrospective were still alive, heīd be celebrating his 57th birthday come December. What kind of middle-aged artist might Jean-Michel Basquiat make? Itīs hard to imagine him getting any older than 27, the age when drugstook his life. It is like trying to picture a Van Gogh who never shot himself, a Keats who recovered from tuberculosis and lived to be poet laureate.The young face of Basquiat looms large in this exhibition, in giant photographs and videos. He sits with Andy Warhol, who has his arm around his protege, in a clip from Warholīs TV show. They talk about New York clubs, but what if the picture were reversed? Instead of an old Warhol embracing a young Basquiat, Iīd like to see old man Basquiat dispensing advice to the young. More to the point, I think it might be good advice. Continue reading...
|
