Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation
By Martina Colzi
Photographed at the MFA by Martina Colzi
During these difficult times, there isn’t much to do that reminds us of the normality of our pre-COVID days. However, a few museums have slowly been able to open back up (following strict social distancing and mask-enforcing guidelines), giving people the option to detach from school and work to do something different.
Photographed at the MFA by Martina Colzi
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit “Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation”, a new exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston. Tickets were selling out by the minute but somehow I managed to snag a ticket for November 5th at 3 p.m. — right after my last class of the day. I had to rush off of Zoom and run down Huntington Avenue in order to make my designated time slot. When I got there, the MFA staff checked my temperature, asked me questions following the COVID health and safety protocol, and recorded my phone number for contact tracing purposes. The time slots were spread out so that only twenty people or so could experience the exhibit at a time. I waited in line, respecting the six-foot apart stickers separating the visitors. When it was my turn, I was guided down the stairs by bright yellow signage on the floor and music welcoming me from inside the exhibit.
The purpose of the exhibit is to showcase how street and graffiti art moved from city walls and subway windows to art galleries, creating a pioneer of its leader: Jean-Michel Basquiat. The exhibit also featured other famous artists from the Eighties such as Keith Haring, Rammellzee, Future, A-One, and many more. These showcased artists all contributed to breaking barriers and creating new paths for art, design, fashion, and music, driving what is now known as hip-hop culture.
Basquiat's story is extraordinary, but sad. According to Lisa Wainwright, at a very young age, Basquiat ran away from home and lived on the streets graffitiing walls of Downtown Manhattan buildings under the name SAMO. Wainwright also mentioned how Basquiat attracted attention through the sweatshirts and postcards he sold featuring his art. Seemingly overnight, Basquiat’s work exploded, and he became a highly regarded artist collaborating with other well-known creators such as Andy Warhol and Madonna. Despite his gifts, Basquiat’s life was cut short when he passed away from an overdose at the young age of 28, leaving behind a legacy. The MFA’s exhibit portrays that legacy from start to finish, through a variety of Basquiat’s work, depicting his life and place within the hip-hop scene. It allowed the audience to understand how his art contributed to the commemoration of African-American history. A large aspect of the exhibit revolved around Basquiat’s art-based commentary of the political and social atmosphere of the Eighties.
Photographed at the MFA by Martina Colzi
The power and magnetism of Basquiat's work come down to his techniques, artistic choices, and the strong messages he chose to communicate through his art. Coming from the graffiti world, he commemorated that part of his life in his paintings by adopting graffiti-like techniques such as harsh strokes, overlapping imagery, abstract figures, hidden symbols, and writing. According to Nadra Nittle, Basquiat also pulled inspiration from his childhood trauma — as a child, he was in a severe car accident and had to re-learn how to walk. Additionally, Nittle writes that, during his months at the hospital, his mother bought him the anatomy book, “Gray’s Anatomy”, where he began to study anatomical illustrations and drawings, which are visible in his art as an adult. Basquiat also has many child-like elements mixed into his graffiti-based style. According to Nittle, Basquiat was said to have admired the work of children over established adult artists, because he believed that their innocent lens on life depicted the familiar with more intent and emotion than adult artists. Lastly, he used a variety of words to communicate the powerful urgency of the subject he was trying to represent. For example, many of his artwork features words such as “sugar” followed by a copyright symbol (to criticize consumerist culture and capitalism) and “Special-K” which is a known slang term for ketamine, a street drug that was taking over New York at the time — this was his way of criticizing America’s drug scene of the Eighties. He also featured the names “Venus” and “Madonna” to signify both the public and the personal aspects of his life. Venus was the name of one of Basquiat’s girlfriends, a relationship that was made public in the media, and Madonna is, of course, the queen of pop, who was rising to fame at the time. It was rumoured she was having an affair with Basquiat in the Eighties. Basquiat’s work consistently hints at personal details like affairs or critical statements about society, attracting viewers who wish to find clues and new meaning within his work.
Despite Basquiat’s importance in developing the movement, the exhibit makes it clear that he wasn’t making his way alone through the art world. A variety of artists of color in the Eighties left a mark in art history through their use of the collective language of hip-hop and street style, and many are also included in the exhibit to emphasize that. Work by artist Rammellzee, a half-Black half-Italian Queens-based artist, often portrayed sci-fi battles through the imagery of space ships, strange alien-like objects, and large spray-painted phrases. According to Hua Hsu and Kelefa Sunneh, through these very symbols, Rammellze was trying to portray the reclaiming of Black culture that had been tainted by the oppressor. Work by A-One, a New York graffiti artist, was also featured. According to an article on ArtNet, he was said to have begun tagging subway windows at the age of 6, in the Seventies, and then evolved to graffiti-on-canvas in his adulthood. Once A-One transitioned to making tangible art pieces, he began exploring new ways to use his art as his voice. ArtNet writes that he began making commentary on social issues, such as police brutality, many of which are featured in his art. In this exhibit, one of his featured paintings depicts a variety of spray-painted symbols with a phrase stamped in the middle that reads “When someone beats you with a flashlight you make light shine in all directions,” a commentary on how the police would beat black protestors with flashlights, during rallies that took place in the Eighties.
This exhibit was loud and filled with in-your-face art including large letters, bright colors, and celebrations of the hip-hop scene and commentary on social and political issues pertinent in the Eighties. The MFA has this exhibit open until May 16, 2021, so if you have the time to go, it is more than worth it. Walking through the various featured art evokes an immense emotional impact on the viewer, not just because of the quality of the art, but also because it is so applicable to our current social and political climate despite the forty-year separation.
Photographed at the MFA by Martina Colzi
Photographed at the MFA by Martina Colzi
Sources:
Hsu, Hua, and Kelefa Sanneh. “The Spectacular Personal Mythology of Rammellzee.” The New Yorker, Conè Nast, 21 May 2018.
Nittle, Nadra Kareem. “Biography of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Provocative American Artist.” ThoughtCo, Dotdash, 15 May 2019.
Wainwright, Lisa S. “Jean-Michel Basquiat.” Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 8 Aug. 2020.
